9 Guidelines & Best Practices for Exceptional Web Design and Usability

When it comes to designing or redesigning a website, it’s easy to get hung up on the aesthetics. Does that shade of blue look right? Should the logo be on the right side of the screen, or left? What if we put a giant animated GIF in the middle of the page?

However, in a world where folks have more than 1.8 billion websites they can potentially land on, you need to make sure yours is not just a pretty face. It should be designed for usability, how easy your website is to use, and user experience (UX), how enjoyable it is to interact with your website.

Now, you could spend years studying the ins and outs of these disciplines But for the sake of giving you a jumping-off point, we've assembled a list of the fundamental guidelines and best practices you can apply to your next website redesign or website launch. Then, we’ll review 10 features you’ll need on your site to put these recommendations into practice. Let’s dive in.

1. Simplicity

While the appearance of your website is certainly important, most people aren't coming to your site to evaluate how slick the design is. They want to complete some action, or to find some specific piece of information.

Therefore, unnecessary design elements (i.e., those which serve no functional purpose) will only overwhelm and make it more difficult for visitors to accomplish what they're trying to accomplish.

From a usability and UX perspective, simplicity is your best friend. If you have all the necessary page elements, it’s hard to get too simple. You can employ this principle in a variety of different forms, such as:

• Colors: Basically, don't use a lot. The Handbook of Computer-Human Interaction recommends using a maximum of five (plus or minus two) different colors in your design.
• Typefaces: The typefaces you choose should be highly legible, so nothing too artsy and very minimal script fonts, if any. For text color, again, keep it minimal and always make sure it contrasts with the background color. A common recommendation is to use a maximum of three different typefaces in a maximum of three different sizes.
• Graphics: Only use graphics if they help a user complete a task or perform a specific function (don't just add graphics willy-nilly).

Here's a great example of a simple but effective homepage design from HERoines Inc:

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2. Visual Hierarchy

Closely tied to the principle of simplicity, visual hierarchy means arranging and organizing website elements so that visitors naturally gravitate toward the most important elements first.

Remember, when it comes to optimizing for usability and UX, the goal is to lead visitors to complete a desired action, but in a way that feels natural and enjoyable. By adjusting the position, color, or size of certain elements, you can structure your site in such a way that viewers will be drawn to those elements first.

In the example below from Spotify, you can see that the main heading “Get 3 months of Premium for free” sits atop the visual hierarchy with its size and page position. It draws your eye to their mission before anything else. This is followed by the "Get 3 Months Free" CTA, which prompts action. Users can click this CTA, or scan the menu items above for more actions.

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3. Navigability

Planning out intuitive navigation on your site is crucial to help visitors find what they're looking for. Ideally, a visitor should land on your site and not have to think extensively about where to click next. Moving from point A to point B should be as frictionless as possible.

Here are a few tips for optimizing your site's navigation:

• Keep the structure of your primary navigation simple (and near the top of your page).
• Include navigation in the footer of your site.
• Consider using breadcrumbs on every page (except your homepage) so users remember their navigation trail.
• Include a search bar near the top of your site so visitors can search by keywords.
• Don't offer too many navigation options per page. Again, simplicity!
• Include links within your page copy, and make it clear where those links go.
• Don't make users dig too deep. Try making a basic wireframe map of all your site pages arranged like a pyramid: Your homepage is at the top, and each linked page from the previous forms the next layer. In most cases, it’s best to keep your map no more than three levels deep. Take HubSpot’s site map, for example.

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One more pointer: Once you've settled on what your site's main (top) navigation will be, keep it consistent. The labels and location of your navigation should remain the same on every page.

This leads us nicely into our next principle...

4. Consistency

In addition to keeping your navigation consistent, the overall look and feel of your site should be similar across all of your site's pages. Backgrounds, color schemes, typefaces, and even the tone of your writing are all areas where consistency has a positive impact on usability and UX.

That's not to say every page should follow the same layout. Instead, create different layouts for specific types of pages (e.g., landing pages, informational pages, etc.). By using those layouts consistently, you'll make it easier for visitors to understand what type of information they're likely to find on a given page.

In the example below, you can see that Airbnb uses the same layout for all of its "Help" pages, a common practice. Imagine what it would be like from a visitor's perspective if every "Help" page had its own, unique layout. There would probably be a lot of shoulder shrugging.

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5. Responsivity

According to Statista, 48% of page global views were from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. And according to our research, 93% of people have left a website because it didn’t display properly on their device.

The takeaway here: To provide a truly great user experience, your site has to be compatible with the many different devices that your visitors are using. In the tech world, this is known as responsive design.

Responsive design means investing in a highly flexible website structure. On a responsive site, content is automatically resized and reshuffled to fit the dimensions of whichever device a visitor happens to be using. This can be accomplished with mobile-friendly HTML templates, or by creating a special mobile site.

Ultimately, it's more important to provide a great experience across different devices than look identical across those devices.

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Alongside mobile-friendliness, it’s worth your while to test your website’s cross-cross browser compatibility. In all likelihood, you’ve only viewed your site on one web browser, be it Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or something else.

Now is the time to open your pages on each of these browsers and evaluate how your elements appear. Ideally, there won’t be much difference in presentation, but you can’t know for sure until you see for yourself.

6. Accessibility

The goal of web accessibility is to make a website that anyone can use, including people with disabilities or limitations that affect their browsing experience. As a website designer, it’s your job to think of these users in your UX plan.

Like responsiveness, accessibility applies to your entire site: structure, page format, visuals, and both written and visual content. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative and the World Wide Web Consortium, set the guidelines for web accessibility. In a broad sense, these guidelines state that websites must be:

• Perceivable: Visitors are aware of the content on your site.
• Operable: The functionality of your website should be possible in different ways.
• Understandable: All content and alerts can be easily understood.
• Robust: Your website is usable across different assistive technologies, devices, and browsers.

For a deeper dive into this topic, see our Ultimate Guide to Web Accessibility.

7. Conventionality

A big challenge in web design is balancing originality with your expectations. Most of us are expert internet users, and there are specific conventions we’ve grown accustomed to over time. Such conventions include:

• Placing the main navigation at the top (or left side) of a page.
• Placing a logo at the top left (or center) of a page.
• Making the logo clickable, so it always brings a visitor back to the homepage.
• Having links and buttons that change color/appearance when you hover over them.
• Using a shopping cart icon on an ecommerce site. The icon also has a number badge signifying the number of items in the cart.
• Ensuring image sliders have buttons users can click to manually rotate slides.

While some might opt to throw these out the window for the sake of uniqueness, this is a mistake. There’s still plenty of room for creativity within the constraints of web conventionality.

Let’s briefly consider another field of design, architecture. Building codes are put in place so that folks can easily and safely inhabit spaces. An architect doesn’t complain about these codes or violate them because, aside from legal repercussions, they assure safety and comfort of guests. It doesn’t matter how dazzling the building looks — if you trip on uneven stairs or you can’t get out in a fire, you might prefer to stay outside.

In the same way, you can craft a memorable experience while meeting user expectations. If you violate what users anticipate, they may feel uncomfortable or even frustrated with your site.

8. Credibility

Sticking to web conventions lends your site credibility. In other words, it increases the level of trust your site conveys. And if you're striving to build a site that provides the best user experience possible, credibility goes a long way.

One of the best methods to improve your credibility is to be clear and honest about the product or service you're selling. Don't make visitors dig through dozens of pages to find what it is you do. Be up-front on your homepage, and dedicate some real estate to explaining the value behind what you do.

Another credibility tip: Have a pricing page, also linked on the homepage. Rather than force people to contact you to learn more about pricing, list your prices clearly on your site. This makes your business appear more trustworthy and legitimate.

Here's an example of an effective pricing page from the Box website:

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9. User-Centricity

At the end of the day, usability and user experience hinge on the preferences of the end-users. After all, if you're not designing for them, who are you designing for?

So, while the principles detailed in this list are a great starting point, the final key to improving the design of your site is to conduct user testing, gather feedback, and implement changes based on what you've learned.

And don’t bother testing usability by yourself. You’ve already invested a lot of time into your design, which brings your own biases into the equation. Get testers who have never seen your site before, the same as any first-time visitor.

Here are a few user testing tools to get you started:

• Website Grader: Our free tool evaluates your website based on several factors: mobile, design, performance, SEO, and security. It then offers tailored suggestions for improvement. You can learn more about Website Grader in our dedicated blog post.
• Crazy Egg: Track multiple domains under one account and uncover insights about your site's performance using four different intelligence tools -- heat map, scroll map, overlay, and confetti.
• Loop11: Use this tool to easily create usability tests -- even if you don't have any HTML experience.
• The User Is Drunk: Pay Richard Littauer to get drunk and review your site. Don't believe me? We tried it.

For even more helpful options, see our list of the best user testing tools.

Hopefully, these guidelines are useful in informing the structure of your web pages and website as a whole. But, how does one put these guidelines into practice? Let's take a look at some actionable best practices you can follow during the design process. 

1. Select a typography that’s easy to read and skim.

Typography refers to how type — meaning letters and characters — are arranged and presented on the page. Since website typography affects not only how we read but how we feel about text on a web page, it’s important to pick carefully. 

Ideally, you want a typeface that is:

• easy to read
• easy to skim
• accessible to all users
• legible across multiple devices and screen sizes

You also want it to match the look and feel of your brand. For example, the luxury fashion brand Burberry refreshed its logo for the first time in 20 years in 2018. It replaced the old serif typeface with a bold, all-caps, sans serif typeface and dropped the knight emblem. The result is a simpler and more modern-looking logo that’s easier to read on any screen — and that reflects changes in the company to become more transparent and appeal to a younger generation. 

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2. Choose a color scheme that suits your brand.

Like typography, color can affect not only how we understand and interact with content, but how we feel about it. Your color scheme should therefore check off the same boxes as your website typography. It should:

• reinforce your brand identity
• make your site easy to read and navigate
• evoke emotion
• look good

Buzzfeed, for examples, uses the primary colors yellow and red to grab users' attention and get them excited about the content. It reserves the use of the primary color blue — which is associated with trust — exclusively for links and CTA buttons. Both emotions are ideal to evoke for a media site. 

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3. Use white space to break up text and other elements.

Whitespace refers to the negative areas in any composition. Whitespace provides users with visual breaks as they process a website’s design or content, which is not only aesthetically pleasing. By minimizing distractions, whitespace makes it easier for users to focus, process information, and understand what it’s important. 

That means you can use whitespace to avoid causing information overload or analysis paralysis — and to emphasize important elements on the page. This might help persuade users to take a specific action, like sign up for a newsletter, shop your latest collection, and more.

For example, Eb & flow Yoga Studio uses whitespace to lead users toward a specific action: to sign up for three weeks of classes. Notice that whitespace doesn’t mean the absence of color or imagery. Instead, it means that every element on the page is positioned strategically, with lots of space in between, to avoid overwhelming or confusing visitors. 

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4. Use texture to add personality and depth.

Resembling a three-dimensional, tactile surface, web textures aim to replicate the physical sensation of touch with another sensation — sight. They’re a great design alternative to solid color backgrounds, particularly if you want to add personality and depth to your site. 

Take a look at the texture on the homepage for the Santa Barbara-based restaurant Mony’s Tacos below. It looks like chalk drawn on a blackboard, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you but I can almost feel the chalk on my fingers just from looking at it. It's the perfect look for a restaurant that aims to be California's preferred Funk Zone choice for Mexican delights.

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5. Add images to engage and inform readers.

Striking a balance between text and images is essential in website design. Incorporating visuals can make your content more informative, engaging, and memorable. You’ve probably heard the statistics that people remember only 20% of what they read, but 80% of what they see? While the exact percentages are debated, the basic idea isn’t. It’s easier for some people to learn and process information visually.

Here's a unique example of breaking up text with images from a cosmetic company's website. This shows how endless the possibilities of incorporating imagery into your website design are. 

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6. Simplify your navigation.

Navigation is one of the most important design elements on a website. It impacts whether visitors arrive on your homepage and browse, or click the “Back” button. That’s why it’s important to keep it as simple as possible. 

Many websites opt for a horizontal navigation bar. This navigation style lists the major pages side by side and is placed in the website header. 

Take the navigation bar on Blavity as an example. The sections featured include three content categories — “News,” “Op-Eds,” and “Lifestyle” — as well as links to their submission page and sign-up page. This provides visitors with easy access to the pages they’re likely looking for. Other nav items are placed in a dropdown menu labelled "More" so they're still easy to find but not cluttered into the top-level navigation. Finally, the navigation bar is sticky so visitors won’t have to scroll up and down the page to browse the site. 

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7. Make your CTAs stand out.

CTAs are elements on a web page, advertisement, or another piece of content that encourages the audience to do something. The call to action could be to sign up, subscribe, start a free trial, or learn more, among many others.

You want your CTAs to pop in your website design. To make that happen, consider how you’re using color as well as other elements like background color, surrounding images, and surrounding text.

Square provides an excellent call-to-action example. Using a single image to showcase the simplicity of using their product, Square uses bold typography to also show how unique and future-oriented their product is. Against this dramatic backdrop, the blue "Get Started" CTA awaits your click.

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8. Optimize for mobile.

We’ve already discussed how important it is for your website to be responsive. But since mobile devices accounted for 59% of organic search engine visits in 2021, we’re doubling down on how important it is to design your website to be mobile-friendly. That might mean altering or removing some elements that would clutter smaller screen sizes or negatively impact load time. 

For an example of one of the best mobile website designs, compare Etsy’s homepage on desktop vs mobile. On desktop, you’ll see a navbar with categories. Hovering over each category will reveal a dropdown menu.

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On mobile, this collapses behind a hamburger button, which improves the appearance and performance of the mobile site. You'll also notice that the images are larger — perfect for tapping with your finger on a mobile screen.

9. Limit the options presented to users.

According to Hick’s Law, increasing the number and complexity of choices will increase the time it takes for a person to make a decision. This is bad news in website design. If a website visitor is presented with too many options, they might get frustrated and bounce — or they might pick an option you don’t want, like abandoning their cart. That’s why it’s important to limit the number of options presented to a user. 

For example, a visitor landing on the homepage of Shawn Michelle's Ice Cream will have three options: to learn more about the company, the flavors, or the ingredients. But instead of presenting all three options at the same time, they are presented one at a time in a slider. This is a great example of implementing Hick’s Law in UX design. 

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Now we understand the principles and best practices that should guide you throughout the design process. In the next section, let's run down the essential page elements that you should strongly consider including in your design plan.

1. Header and Footer

The header and footer are a staple of just about every modern website. Try to include them on most of your pages, from your homepage, to your blog posts, and even your “No results found” page.

Your header should contain your branding in the form of a logo and organization name, menu navigation, and maybe a CTA, and/or a search bar if well-spaced and minimal. On the other end, your footer is where many users will instinctively scroll for essential information. In your footer, place contact information, a signup form, links to your common pages, legal and privacy policies, links to translated versions of your site, and social media links.

2. Menu Navigation

Whether it’s a list of links across the header or a tidy and compact hamburger button in the corner, every website needs a guide for navigation positioned at the top of at least your homepage and other important pages. A good menu limits the number of clicks to reach any part of your website to just a few.

To reduce clutter, you might consider making some or all menu options a dropdown menu with links within it, as can be seen on HubSpot's homepage.

3. Search Bar

In addition to menu navigation, strongly consider placing a search bar at the top of your pages, so users can browse your site for content by keyword. If incorporating this functionality, make sure your results are relevant, forgiving of typos, and capable of approximate keyword matching. Most of us use a high-quality search engine every day, be it Google, Amazon, YouTube, or elsewhere. These all set the standard for your own site search.

4. Branding

Remember the conventions we’ve discussed? One that you see practically everywhere is a logo in the top left corner. On first landing, many visitors’ eyes will instinctively shift to this region to check they’re in the right place. Don’t leave them hanging.

To reinforce this notion, incorporate your company branding into every element you add, piece of content you post, and color scheme you create. That’s why we recommend establishing brand guidelines if you haven’t already — check out our style guide for a reference.

5. Color Palette

Color choice plays a major role in your site’s usability and UX as well. This decision tends to be more subjective than other requirements in this list. But, like everything else we’ve discussed, try to simplify — limit your color selection to 3-4 prominent colors at most.

Starting a color palette from scratch can be surprisingly difficult the first time. We seem to intuitively pick up on which colors work well together and which don’t, but we stumble when trying to pick from the infinite combinations available.

The solution? Try a color palette that’s been shown to work on other websites. Take influence from your favorite sites, and see our list of our favorite website color schemes to get started.

6. Headings

Headings are key to establishing the visual hierarchy we discussed earlier, especially on text-heavy pages. As users skim your pages what you need, a clear and to-the-point heading alerts readers to stop scrolling after finding what they want. Use only as many headings as there are distinct sections of your page, as too much blown-up and bolded text will dampen this effect.

7. Clear Labels

Whenever a user takes an action on your website, it must be obvious exactly what they’re doing and/or where they’re going. All buttons should have clear text or an icon to precisely and concisely signal their purpose. The same goes for in-text links and widgets (simple interactive elements, like dropdowns and text forms).

For example, a button linking to a pricing page should just read “Pricing” — anything beyond that (e.g., “See our prices”, “Check out the pricing page for a deal”) is superfluous. A search bar/button only needs a search glass icon (🔍), and perhaps also the word “Search”, to denote its purpose.

User testing can be a major help here. While you yourself know what all of your interactive page elements do, the same can’t be said for a new user. Testing will give valuable insight into what users think your labels mean beyond your own perspective.

8. Visuals and Media

When incorporating static images, gifs, videos, and other media into your pages, remember to be consistent and intentional in your choices. These elements will draw attention over most other text and will likely stay in users’ minds, so choose wisely.

Here’s just one example of effective media on a homepage. Notice how every image complements the page aesthetic and supports the offer of personalized fitness training with results.

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Also, all images and videos should be optimized for search engines and include descriptive alt text for accessibility.

9. Calls to Action (CTAs)

Having a pleasing website is great, but how do you know whether your visitors are actually doing what you want? Are they engaging with your content? This is where CTAs come into play.

A CTA is any page element that prompts user action. The action could be adding a product to a card, downloading a content offer, or signing up for an email list. Make your CTA elements prominent in the visual hierarchy (remember our Spotify example), but not intrusive or distracting like many click-through ads tend to be.

If you need ideas for sleek CTAs that drive more conversions, see our CTA examples list.

10. Whitespace

As mentioned above, sometimes it’s about the elements you don’t include. After reading these guidelines and requirements, you may feel tempted to stuff your pages with all the bits and bobs needed for a flawless UX. Don’t forget that your viewers need room to digest all this new info, so give your elements room to breathe.

But, how much whitespace should you have? That’s another personal call, and varies from site to site. So, user testing is handy here as well. What are people focusing on? Do they feel overwhelmed with the density of content? Once again, it all ties back to our first guideline, simplicity.

Design that Puts Users First

Indeed, web design is largely subjective — your website’s look and experience isn’t going to please everyone. However, there are also tried-and-true UX principles that, when carefully considered and incorporated, help visitors feel more at home.

According to Amazon Web Services, 88% of website visitors are less likely to return to a website after a poor experience. And how could you blame them? We’ve surely all been there.

So, as a final bit of usability/UX wisdom, start caring more! Imagine yourself into the shoes (or, more accurately, browser windows) of your visitors, and keep them in mind every step of the design process.

9 Guidelines & Best Practices for Exceptional Web Design and Usability was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Merge Cells in Excel in 5 Minutes or Less

Knowing the ins and outs of Excel is essential for organizing data, understanding analytics, and getting the most from your marketing efforts. The tool is great for quickly processing vast amounts of data, but it can be overwhelming if you don't spend the majority of your workday whipping up spreadsheets.

Fortunately, a few basic skills are all you need to put together an easy-to-read spreadsheet. One is knowing how to merge cells in Excel. Whether you're planning blog articles for the upcoming quarter, creating an email list for a targeted campaign, or designing SEO-friendly Google ads, merging cells is a handy way to organize your information.

To sharpen your skills, we'll cover several ways to combine cells.

• How to merge two cells
• How to merge and center cells
• How to merge multiple cells
• How to merge cells without losing data
• A shortcut to merge cells
• Why can't I merge cells?

Don't want to start from scratch? Use these free Excel templates as a foundation for your own marketing spreadsheets.

How to Merge Two Cells in Excel

Merging is a way to turn two small cells into one new, large cell. This is useful for organizing information and creating headers, without the need to resize individual cells. Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Highlight the two adjacent cells you want to merge (I'm merging A1 and B1 in the example).

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Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the 'Merge' icon and choose 'Merge Cells'.

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Step 3: That's it! You've merged the cells.

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Note: When combining cells, only the data in the upper left cell is saved. Make sure to save the information from the other cell so it's not lost. If you happen to have data in both A1 and B1, Excel won't simply wipe it. This alert will pop up:

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Don't want to delete the data? Click 'Cancel,' and copy/paste the information into a separate document or cell before merging. If you only need the information in the upper-left cell, click 'OK' to merge the cells.

How to Merge and Center Cells in Excel

Say you're building a marketing report and want your titles to be centered above your data. Merge and center cells by following these steps.

Step 1: Highlight the cells you want to merge.

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Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the 'Merge' icon and choose 'Merge & Center.'

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Step 3: Your cells will merge and the data will be centered within the cell.

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How to Merge Cells in Excel Shortcut

Clicking the correct 'Merge' function over and over can be a drag if you need to combine a lot of cells. For fast merging, start by highlighting the cells you want to merge. Then, type the following key combinations.

Excel Shortcuts for Windows

1. Merge Cells: ALT H+M+M
2. Merge & Center: ALT H+M+C
3. Merge Across: ALT H+M+A
4. Unmerge Cells: ALT H+M+U

Excel Shortcuts for OS

The Apple operating system doesn't have an ALT key, so you have to set up your own shortcut to merge cells.

1. In Excel, click 'Tools' under the navigation bar.
2. Select 'Customize Keyboard.'
3. A pop-up will appear. Under the header 'Specify a Command' there are two columns: Categories and Commands. For Categories, select 'Home Tab.' For Commands, select 'Merge Cells.'
4. Select the text box under 'Press new keyboard shortcut.' Type the key combination for your shortcut. For example: CONTROL+M.
5. Click 'OK' to set your shortcut.
6. You can now use CONTROL+M to merge cells in Excel.
7. Set up additional shortcuts for Merge Across, Merge & Center, or Unmerge.

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How to Merge Multiple Cells in Excel

You know the basics, but now you want to get creative and merge more than two cells. Depending on your desired spreadsheet layout, you can use the Merge Across, Merge Cells, or Merge & Center function.

1. Merge Across

This option is used to merge cells within a single row. You can't use 'Merge Across' to combine cells within a column or across multiple rows.

In this example, I'm setting up PPC ads and want to see my description copy in row 17. If I simply resize column F, my table will have too much space between column F and G. Merging multiple cells across row 17 lets me see the copy and keep the table neat.

Step 1: Highlight all the cells you want to merge within the row.

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Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the 'Merge' icon and choose 'Merge Across.'

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Step 3: The cells merge across the entire highlighted area.

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2. Merge & Center

You can merge and center multiple cells across rows and down columns. Just remember the data in the upper-left cell is the only information that will stay once merged. In the example below, I use 'Merge & Center' to combine rows 15, 16, and 17 with columns F, G, and H.

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3. Merge Cells

The 'Merge Cells' function is ideal to combine multiple adjacent cells across rows and columns. It works just like the 'Merge & Center' function, except the data will be left-aligned instead of centered after merging.

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How to Merge Cells in Excel Without Losing Data

Want to merge cells without losing information from all but the upper left cell? Easy. You can use the ampersand (&) or the CONCATENATE function to combine data from two or more cells.

In the example below, I'm creating copy for Instagram and want to combine the caption with its corresponding link.

Ampersand

Step 1: Choose the cell where you want to put the merged data. Make sure this is separate from the cells you're merging.

Step 2: Type = in the blank cell and select the first cell to combine.

Step 3: Type & and use " " to leave a space between cell data.

Step 4: Type & again before choosing the next cell. Repeat for all the cells you want to combine. An example formula is =D5&" "&E5.

Step 5: Hit Enter. In the example, you can see how the text from cells D5 and E5 merged into F5.

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CONCATENATE or CONCAT

The CONCATENATE function (or CONCAT) is another way to combine two or more text strings together.

The formula in Excel is =CONCATENATE (text1,text2,...). Text1 is the first cell to merge and can be a text value, number, or cell reference. Text2 is the next item to join. For this function, you can merge up to 255 items or 8,192 characters.

Step 1: Highlight a new blank cell where you want to merge the data.

Step 2: In the formula bar, type =CONCATENATE(

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Step 3: A formula builder will pop up, allowing you to choose Text1, Text2, and so on. Select the cells you want to merge, in order from first to last. To include spaces between the cell data, you must include ," ", within the formula. [i.e. =CONCATENATE(D5," ",E5)]

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Step 4: Hit Enter. The data from your selected cells will be combined in the CONCATENATE cell.

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Why Can't I Merge Cells in Excel?

A lot can go wrong if your formula or formatting isn't set up correctly. If you're struggling to merge cells, try these troubleshooting tips.

1. Ensure you're not actively editing a cell you want to merge. The 'Merge' icon will be shaded out if you're in the middle of making changes. To fix this, simply hit 'Enter' to stop editing or click onto another cell before clicking back to the cell you'd like to merge.

1. Check if one of the cells is part of an Excel table. Tables have a unique format that don't allow merging. You can tell you're on a Table if the 'Chart Design' or 'Format' tabs across the top of your workbook are highlighted in green and the 'Merge' icon is shaded out.

1. Look at the sharing permissions of the Excel workbook. If it's not shared with you or is protected, you won't be able to make any changes or merge cells.

How to Unmerge Cells

Maybe you got a little excited trying out your new skills and merged one cell too many. Don't panic. Simply unmerge your cells by following these steps.

1. Highlight the cells you want to unmerge.
2. Under the Home tab, click the 'Merge' icon and choose 'Unmerge Cells.'
3. Your cells will go back to the original formatting, but you will have lost the information from before the merge.
4. If you need that information, click 'Command' + Z (OS) or 'CTRL' +Z (Windows) to undo your actions until you see the data pop up.

How to Merge Cells in Excel in 5 Minutes or Less was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Reputation Management: How to Protect Your Brand Online in 2021

A positive brand image can undoubtedly influence a consumer's decision to buy a product — and, for virtually every business, building a positive brand image starts online.

Nowadays, your reputation is largely dependent on social media and online review sites. For instance, consumers need to read an average of 10 online reviews before they feel they can trust a local business.

Since brand image makes such an impression on someone's decision to purchase, you must regularly monitor your reputation online. Still, it can feel like a daunting task, particularly when so much of it is out of your control.

Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and strategies you can implement to ensure you're protecting your brand in 2021. In this post, we’ll give a clear overview of brand reputation management, how to create a plan to manage your business reputation, and high-quality tools to supplement your process.

Reputation management is a continuous process, as it allows you to stay on top of your brand’s public perception and address possible damaging situations as soon as they occur.

When your reputation is positive, you inspire customer loyalty, a significant driver of revenue and growth. A negative reputation can be damaging to sales and customer retention, but it also helps you learn about what customers like, which can be helpful for updating business processes to better meet consumer needs.

Brand safety has recently become discussed in conversation with reputation management, and we’ll explain what it is below.

Brand Reputation Management vs. Brand Safety

According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, brand safety ensures that advertisements, their content, and any content shared by brands are appropriate and not associated with topics of consumer opinions that may be negative. Although somewhat similar concepts, brand safety falls into brand reputation management.

Some examples of scenarios that risk brand safety are correct ad placement. The IAB recommends purchasing ad space from trusted publishers so your ads aren’t next to content that consumers may find offensive or cause them to distrust your brand.

In another scenario, you want your advertisements to be related to what you're advertising. If customers click on an ad for a new blanket and are led to unrelated content, you’re practicing malicious advertising, which risks the safety of your consumers.

Brand safety goes both ways; your business is protected from outside sources that aim to harm, and your customers are protected from malicious business practices that may cause them to lose money or be exposed to offensive things.

So, as a whole, brand safety is a process within brand reputation management. You’re ensuring that your advertising practices are legitimate, so consumers don’t feel deceived by your brand and don’t need to second-guess your business and distrust what you have to offer.

Reputation Management Plan

Let’s go over a sample reputation management plan that you can adapt to fit your business needs. It’s essential to keep in mind that reputation management is a continuous process, so neither step is one-and-done; they should be consistent as long as your business is up and running.

1. Research and audit.

The first step to reputation management is research. During this phase, you’ll use the internet to discover conversations about your business and what people are saying about you. Aim to seek out all different types of conversations, as all feedback is helpful for understanding perceptions and improving your reputation.

You can conduct this audit from your customer reviews, on review sites, on social media, and by simply searching for your business’s name on Google and various search engines. You can also search for business-relevant keywords or even the feeds of your competitors. Consumers are talking; you just have to meet them where they already are.

As there are many different platforms and websites you’ll use to conduct your research, using a high-quality reputation management tool will make the process easier, and we’ll recommend some below.

2. Establish a management strategy.

Once you know what overall perception is of your brand, you’ll know where you’ll need to focus to improve it. For example, suppose your audit shows that the conversation around your brand is unfavorable. In that case, you will want to employ practices that will help you improve the experiences that people have with your business.

As such, the next step is to create a consistent management strategy. Regardless of what your current standing is, your plans should address the following:

• Who will consistently monitor online conversations?

Designate specific people at your business to be in charge of conducting continuous research and monitoring conversations about your business online. Those already on customer-facing teams are likely the most equipped to deal with customers, like those on marketing or customer service teams.

Either way, those who monitor online conversation and respond to comments should have experience doing so, and understand how to speak with customers.

• How do you decide which comments, reviews, or mentions need responses?

Some people’s only intent is to troll rather than speak about legitimate experiences. These comments and conversations are fake, created on purpose to diminish your reputation. Most comments, however, are based on real interactions, experiences, and thoughts about your brand, both positive and negative.

You should never respond to reviews that seem fake (here’s a guide on spotting and removing them from Google). However, you should respond to comments from real consumers, which is why it’s essential to understand which warrant a response.

It’s not possible to respond to all of them, so maybe you prioritize responding to customer questions or create specific requirements that dictate when a response is necessary, both for positive and negative comments.

• A tone guide for responding to comments.

Responding to comments and conversations about your brand is not worth it if you don’t have a consistent tone of voice that you follow. For example, if you respond to criticism harshly but positive comments with returned positivity, it will do more harm than good.

Develop a standard tone guide that you will use when responding, and aim to stick to it. It can also be helpful to have a crisis management plan in place within your reputation plan to take action during situations that escalate quickly, are difficult to control, and may leave responsible parties frantic and not adhering to standard guidelines.

3. Take action based on comments, feedback, and reviews.

Understanding how consumers view your brand is the most valuable tool for improvement and innovation. Their criticisms and pain points will direct you to areas of your business that need increased attention, and their positive comments let you know what you’re doing right and what you should continue doing.

As you’re hoping to manage your reputation, taking action based on comments, feedback, and reviews helps you manage your reputation as you’re making changes that customers want to see.

4. Continuously practice steps one, two, and three.

As mentioned above, managing your online reputation is a continuous effort. Although it may be nice, rectifying one situation doesn’t mean that everything is smooth sailing from now until forever.

Always research and monitor conversations about your business to get a sense of where your reputation stands, follow the steps of your plan, and act on the feedback you receive.

Let’s go over some high-quality tools you can use to supplement your reputation management process.

Reputation Management Software

It can be helpful to use reputation management software, particularly if you work for a small-to-medium-sized business with limited PR resources. Below we’ll review some options.

1. Yext Reviews

Since inconsistent information can negatively affect your local SEO, it's critical you ensure your business's data is listed consistently across each site. Fortunately, Yext lets you fix any inconsistent business information all in one place.

Additionally, the software enables you to manage your social media accounts and respond to authentic customer reviews, ensuring you have a good grasp on your brand's true online reputation. Yext is ideal for small-to-medium-sized businesses as well as major enterprise companies — some of its impressive customers include Marriott Hotels and T-Mobile.

Price: Starts at $199/year

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2. ReviewTrackers

ReviewTrackers collects online reviews from over 100 third-party review sites, including Google, TripAdvisor, and Facebook. A critical feature to call out is that you can receive notifications whenever a customer leaves a review, ensuring you're up-to-speed on feedback.

The cloud-based reputation and review management software also allows you to track trending issues and topics to show you the bigger picture around customer issues and provides competitor tracking and performance analytics.

The tool, used by customers such as Sears and Triple A, is available for enterprise companies and small-to-medium sized businesses.

Price: Custom depending on your size and business needs (request a demo here).

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3. Podium

More than likely, the idea of managing your reputation on different sites ranging from Facebook to Google to Yelp is a stressful and overwhelming one — fortunately, software like Podium allows you to see all customer interactions and online reviews in a single dashboard. Your employees can use Podium to request reviews, respond to reviews in real-time, and even exchange text messages with potential customers.

Podium's support team is available via phone, online chat, or email, ensuring you have the help you need to properly implement their tool. The software works best for small-to-medium local businesses with the time and resources to manually send texts to customers or leads.

Price: Custom depending on your size and business needs. (Ask for a quote here).

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4. BirdEye

BirdEye, a SaaS tool used by more than 50,000 businesses, collects feedback from over 150 online review sources to ensure you have the complete picture regarding your brand's online reputation.

You can monitor, promote, and respond to reviews within one dashboard. Additionally, you can use BirdEye to request reviews from customers on both desktop and mobile devices or within BirdEye's messenger tool.

Along with review monitoring, BirdEye provides features to manage your social accounts, gain insight into your competitors' customers, and create surveys and tickets to further improve your customer's overall experience with your brand.

Price: Custom depending on your size and business needs. (Ask for a quote here).

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5. Cision

Cision Communications Cloud lets you track your brand mentions across millions of online stores, as well as any social media mentions. Best of all, Cision helps you reach audiences across traditional, digital, and social platforms, ensuring your brand is thriving across all marketing channels.

While Cision provides tools to ensure you're able to monitor and protect your online brand, its features are particularly impressive for strategic, proactive PR outreach. For instance, Cision helps you find media outlets and specific contacts within the industry to reach out with pitches, or figure out which industry influencers can best help spread your message and positively impact your brand's image.

Cision also provides automated analysis to help you translate your campaigns into valuable global insights. The tool is used by companies such as Comcast and Bayer.

Price: Custom depending on your size and business needs. (Ask for a quote here).

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Reputation Management for Businesses

To understand how a business might implement a reputation management strategy, I spoke with Ellie Flanagan, Senior Corporate Communications Manager at HubSpot.

She told me — "The first step in shoring up your brand's presence online is making sure that all of your owned channels reflect your current imagery, messaging, and values. Check for outdated logos, company descriptions, or mission statements. It's also helpful to do regular audits of other places where your logo or brand might be in use — such as on partner or customer websites."

To conduct regular audits, you might use one of the software tools listed above. Additionally, you can use reputation management software to check for inconsistencies, such as Yext. Alternatively, there are tools such as Express Update or My Business Listing Manager that help you monitor for outdated information (check out A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO in 2021 to learn more).

Flanagan also says, "Make sure you have clear language on your website that outlines your company's trademarks and sets guidelines for how others can use your brand assets. That will be a helpful reference if you need to reach out to someone who's using your brand incorrectly or without permission."

I also spoke with Alice Sol, a Public Relations Specialist at HubSpot. She told me — "Protecting your brand has never been more important, and that goes hand-in-hand with customer trust. We live in a world where information travels rapidly, and we can get a response in seconds at the touch of a button. Technology has enabled us, as consumers, to get in touch with brands quickly — at the same time, it's given brands the ability to form deeper connections and resolve issues faster."

Sol also advises businesses to do their best to meet customer needs and ensure a seamless experience, start-to-finish. She says, "The stakes [on delivering a good experience] are getting higher. 80% of consumers say they have stopped doing business with a company because of a poor experience. If a customer has a bad experience, technology allows information about that experience to travel quickly. At the same time, if a customer has a very positive experience, that creates a strong brand reputation and forms trust."

"Your customers are your biggest asset and it's critical to take those needs very seriously by responding in a timely manner and communicating effectively."

To sum it up, when protecting your online reputation, you'll want to focus on the following tactics:

• Make sure all your owned channels reflect your current imagery, messaging, and values,
• Ensure all online information regarding your business is up-to-date and consistent,
• Use precise language on your website to outline your company's trademarks and set guidelines,
• Cultivate a positive user experience, start-to-finish,
• Listen to customer feedback and respond to negative feedback with helpful, actionable solutions when possible.

If you want further information regarding how to cultivate a comprehensive, cohesive customer experience, take a look at How to Define a Customer Experience (CX) Strategy, which provides you with the six areas of a successful digital customer strategy.

Reputation Management: How to Protect Your Brand Online in 2021 was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Eight Cover Letter Greetings for Every Situation

When you’re trying to make a good first impression, a greeting is critical. Saying “Yo, what’s up” to your new employer will evoke a different, likely more negative reaction than, “Hello, it’s nice to meet you.” 

A cover letter greeting is just as important as your first in-person salutation. It’s a chance to demonstrate professionalism and even effort — for instance, addressing your hiring manager by first and last name shows you did your research. 

Here, we'll explore the best cover letter greetings you can use to ensure your cover letter is well-received.

Cover Letter Salutation and Greeting Examples

Sometimes job listings let you know who will be in charge of your application process, but sometimes they don’t. Let’s go over how to address your cover letters for either situation. Please note that it’s always important to capitalize the nouns for all of your greetings.

1. Dear Hiring Manager,
2. Dear [name of team or department you’re applying for a position in],
3. Dear [company name] Recruiter,
4. To the [name of team you are applying for a position in] Department,
5. Dear [title of the person you would report to],
6. Dear [position title] Hiring Manager,
7. Dear [hiring manager, recruiter, or name of point of contact],
8. Dear Human Resources Manager.

Below we’ll go over an example of how to start a cover letter greeting when you have the name of the hiring manager, recruiter, or point of contact for your application process.

How To Start a Cover Letter Greeting

1. Use "Hello," or "Dear," followed by their first and last name.

If the job description includes the hiring manager's name, or if you've managed to figure it out through research (which we’ll cover below), an easy greeting uses a full name with a "Dear" or "Hello" before it. Additionally, this helps prevent the possibility of misgendering someone that can come from using “Dear Ms./Mr.”

2. Include their title if possible.

If you're writing to a hiring manager with a title like "Dr." or "Professor,” include it in your greeting. It will demonstrate a level of respect and that you’ve done your research. It’s also non-gender specific, again reducing the likelihood of misgendering. 

For instance, you might start your cover letter like this — "Dear Dr. Grace [Insert Last Name]."

3. If you don't know their name, you can still make it specific.

If you've done your research and can't find a specific person hiring for the role, it's likely because the company has a team assembled to delegate the hiring responsibilities. To address a letter to a team, figure out the department or group in which the role falls. Then, follow this formula — "Dear [Department] Hiring Team.”

For instance, if you're applying for a role within Customer Service, you might say, "Dear Customer Service Hiring Committee," or "Dear Customer Service Hiring Team." 

However, it’s worth putting in the effort to research who the hiring manager may be, as the information can sometimes be easy to find.

How to Address a Cover Letter Without a Name

A customized greeting goes a long way towards helping your cover letter stand out in a sea of "To Whom It May Concern." Let’s go over what you can do to uncover who the hiring manager or person responsible for the application process may be. 

Find Recruiters on Company Website

An easy way to try and find the direct responsible individual is by visiting the company website and looking for an “About Us” tab. Some businesses list names of people who work there, and you can browse through the list to see if you can find the recruiter for your position or relevant department.

Find Recruiters on LinkedIn

Some companies have such big teams that each department has its own recruiter or hiring manager. LinkedIn can come in handy here, as you can use the “People” tab to search for keywords like “hiring manager + department you’re applying to,” or “department you’re applying to + recruiter” to figure out who the direct responsible individual is for different departments. 

Find Recruiters on Twitter

Twitter is also a great social media tool for identifying recruiters or hiring managers. You can search through keywords related to the business you’re hoping to work for and browse through profiles to see what you can find. Most professionals using Twitter have some description of their job position in their bio, so you should be able to identify them when you see them. 

You can also search on Twitter for the position title you’re applying for to see if a recruiter has Tweeted a link on their profile. 

If you’ve done all your research and you can’t find a hiring manager to address your letter to, and you weren’t given a name in the application process, there are still some alternatives:

1. Dear Hiring Manager
2. Dear [name of team or department you’re applying for a position in]
3. Dear [position title] Hiring Manager
4. Dear Human Resources Manager

To Whom It May Concern is an often recommended option, but most would say that you shy away from it as it is considered a more outdated and less personalized greeting than others on this list. It would be safe to consider using it as a last resort option.

At the end of the day, when writing your cover letter, your ultimate goal is to make a good impression. If you’re able to find the name of the recruiter or hiring manager, use their name, but if not, any of the recommended greetings in this post will do.

Eight Cover Letter Greetings for Every Situation was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns