Many of us share links to interesting and useful resources with their followers on the social networks. I don’t know why but although usually such links are carefully selected, very few of them become popular.

Recently I’ve analyzed posts on our Google+ account and revealed that currently articles and blog posts on CSS3 coding tricks and tips on how to write efficient CSS3 code get a lot of (+1)‘s and reshares. So, I’ve decided to collect these resources together in one place. You can find them below. Hope you like them all .

• CSS3 Tricks and Tips
• Efficient CSS3 Coding and Programming

CSS3 Tricks and Tips

1). How to Create a Circular Progress Button
http://tympanus.net/codrops/2014/04/09/how-to-create-a-circular-progress-button/
by Mary Lou: “A tutorial on how to implement the circular progress button concept by Colin Garven. We are using the SVG line drawing animation technique as described by Jake Archibald to animate the circular progress and provide a success and error state to indicate the final status.”

2). Creating a Border Animation Effect with SVG and CSS
http://tympanus.net/codrops/2014/02/26/creating-a-border-animation-effect-with-svg-and-css/
by Mary Lou: “The website of Carl Philipe Brenner has some very creative and subtle animations and today we want to explore how to recreate a border animation effect using CSS transitions on SVG lines.”

3). CSS3 Hidden Social Buttons
http://scotch.io/tutorials/css/css3-hidden-social-buttons
by Chris Sevilleja: “…some very simple techniques using CSS3 transforms to make social link buttons. Usually you’ll see these links all over a site sitting there making a site look ugly.”

4). CSS Variables – How To Use Custom Properties For Cascading Variables
http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/native-variables/
by Steven Bradley: “Today I thought I’d run through how to use css variables as currently written in the spec.”

5). CSS Regions Considered Harmful
http://alistapart.com/blog/post/css-regions-considered-harmful
by Håkon Wium Lie: “For those who believe in meaningful HTML tags, responsive web design, and compact CSS code, the introduction of CSS Regions is not good news.”

6). Efficient CSS selectors
https://plus.google.com/b/105478328706567690940/+AlinaBasova/posts/G4UxYdVbPVt
by Alina Basova: “That means browsers’ performance got better, but they still look at selector from right to left, even though it does this faster now…”

7). What Nobody Told You About Sass’s @extend
http://www.sitepoint.com/sass-extend-nobody-told-you/
by Hugo Giraudel: “While most Sass users understand the basics of @extend, I feel there are some more obscure parts to it that are not as well known.”

8). What Can CSS Filters Do for You?
http://designmodo.com/css-filters/
by Paula Borowska: “CSS filters have been around for a while. They originated thanks to SVGs – Scalable Vector Graphics – in order to apply different image effects to vectors. Today, CSS filters are not limited to SVGs but can be used for images, text and everything else you can find on a web page.”

Efficient CSS3 Coding and Programming

1). How to Evaluate Front-End Code for Inefficiencies
http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/common-css-front-end-code-mistakes
by Guil Hernandez: “Using real-world examples found on several websites, let’s take a look at common ‘red flags’ to look for when writing code and evaluating its quality.”

2). The top 10 beginner programming mistakes
http://www.creativebloq.com/education/top-10-beginner-programming-mistakes-12135860
by Iain Lobb: “When you’re learning to program, it goes without saying that you make a lot of mistakes. The problem is, sometimes you don’t know you’re making them. In my work teaching first year university students to code, I see the same errors come up over and over again, and they’re the same mistakes I made when I was learning. So here’s my list of the top beginner mistakes to avoid…”

3). 10 Programming Habits Developers Should Adopt
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/developer-habits/
by Alvaris Falcon: “Learning programming is fun and easy, but writing a good program can prove to be a daunting task. In most cases, we find ourselves constantly scratching our heads trying to understand the spaghetti code we wrote, or making lots of changes just because of a newly added minor feature.”

4). A Software Developer’s Reading List
http://stevewedig.com/2014/02/03/software-developers-reading-list/
by Steve Wedig: “I have been trying to design a core curriculum for ‘modern’ software development by asking myself: What core concepts are required to be a world class software developer? What is the best book for introducing and teaching each concept? The result is a list of 16 essential software development concepts presented by 16 excellent books…”

5). Be a smart HTML/CSS coder, or die out
http://www.htmlcut.com/blog/be-smart-html-css-coder.html
by Sean Brown: “Are coders an endangered species?”

6). The secret to keeping up with frontend technologies
http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/frontend-rescue-21410749
by Matt Griffin and Patrick Fulton: “Frontend design moves insanely fast, so how do you keep up? Here’s a site that’ll help you stay on top of things.”

Sergiy Lavryk is the CEO of HTMLcut, a popular PSD to HTML5/CSS3 coding service. He is an experienced web and software developer with over 12+ years of practical apps creation.

Several years ago one of the main ways to promote a website in the Internet, especially for small businesses, was SEO (search engine optimization). Often it included so called “black hat” techniques that were aimed to manipulate Google’s search results: mass link buying, spam (in the blog comments, social networks, emails, etc.), onsite keyword spamming, hidden texts, and so forth. In many cases such SEO was quite effective. That is the reason why many website owners usually defined the key goal of their websites as “We need Position 1-3 in Google” and relied mainly on SEO firms.

But nowadays many specialists in the field of website promotion have been removing the word ‘SEO’ from their business names and ads (saying about “inbound marketing” instead) because “black and grey hat” techniques are blamed and actively (and increasingly successfully) eradicated by Google. Today the first position on Google is still desired and useful but it doesn’t guarantee that the website’s life will be unclouded, at least for the long term, because Google changes its rules very often, and no one is safe from dropping deep down into the dark at any moment.

Table I: Web Programming vs. Today’s SEO – Predictable Stability vs. Uncontrolled Volatility

What Is the Way Out?

So, what is the way out? The answer is that now it’s a good time to recall the principle “Don’t put all eggs in one basket” and that traffic (and clients) can be achieved in different ways, not only from Positions 1-5 in Google for the main keywords of the website Home page.

Google recommends to focus on creating great unique content on a continuous basis because that is the best way to get natural links from other websites. To facilitate your website promotion also use corresponding HTML tags to explain the main topic of your content to Google: the <title> tag, meta description tag, suitable keywords (but don’t spam), and so on. If you have no time / money / skills / desire to create and promote your content, welcome to Google Adwords.

But creating good content is not a cheap thing. Does it mean that small businesses have no future in the Internet?

What Do You Need: Positions in Google or Clients?

Usually businesses need clients, rather than just high positions. Clients are converted from visitors. So, you should

• Attract the target audience to your website (with both online and offline methods). Don’t confuse the target audience with accidental or paid visitors: you need those who are really interested in your products or services and may buy them.
• Effectively convert them into clients. The larger the conversion rate of your website is, the less visitors you need in order to get a given number of clients.

How to solve these two tasks? Here are some recommendations.

Preparatory Work

1. Check out the technical background of your website

Some of the questions below may be too technical for an ordinary website owner but if you know what to ask it’s much easier to speak to website admins, hosting providers or web developers.

• The file robots.txt: Is it accurate and accessible?
• The tag <meta name=”robots”>: Is it set up correctly (if it is present on a page)?
• Sitemaps, at least an .xml version: Are they present?
• Absence of duplicate content (including http://website.com and http://www.website.com versions of the website, Google considers them as two different websites)
• Absence of broken links
• Correct treatment of the 404 error (“Page not found”)
• Do forms and payment gateways work correctly?
• Is the website load time short enough?
• Semantic and clear HTML/CSS code
• For local businesses: set up your country in the Google Webmaster Tools, for example:

Slow websites or forms with ‘bugs’ are among the common reasons of the high bounce rate and low conversion rate. An obsolete website design may scare away visitors too but technical problems are much more crucial. Moreover, without a proper technical background websites may be not indexed by search engines or have very understated positions in the search results. The duplicate content may essentially decrease the website ranking.

2. Onsite “white hat” SEO

• Unique and descriptive <title> tag for each page
• Unique meta description tags
• Suitable headings and subheadings <h1> – <h6>
• Optimized images with descriptive alt attributes
• Lists and quotes
• Reasonable keyword mention in content

This will help search engines and visitors fast and easy to understand what your content is exactly all about.

Attracting the Target Audience

1. Blogging on your website

Blogging allows you to get on a regular basis:

• Fresh content that is interesting for visitors to read and reshare
• Good “long tail” keyword ranking in Google and other search engines
• Natural links to your website from other websites and corresponding traffic from them

2. Social networking, niche communities, and video hubs

You get:

• Account profiles that represent your company and popularize your products or services
• Natural opportunity to promote your new content
• Reputation of an open and client-oriented company

Nowadays social network accounts and profiles in communities can be ranked as high as corporate websites. Therefore, they can be a good way to get additional traffic or even clients directly.

3. Commenting on reputed websites with substantial traffic (sure, no spam)

• Attract attention to your company
• Enhance your reputation as an expert
• Promotion of your content
• Links to your content

4. Onsite news and external press releases distribution

• Regular news about your products and company (your achievements, awards, enhancements, etc.) is important and interesting for your clients and helps build a positive image of your company
• Possible appearance in News section on Google

5. Wise article marketing

• Guest blogging on reputed resources with good traffic
• Articles on popular niche and professional resources (online and print)
• Articles in the local newspapers

Note: Don’t repeat one and the same article on many resources, always use unique and valuable content that emphasizes your expertise.

6. Registration on reputed resources

• Websites of the main niche organizations
• Key business catalogs
• Reputed local websites (Yellow Pages, etc.)

This technique may attract good attention to your products or services.

7. Pay per click (PPC) ads

PPC can be really effective but it requires some experience in setting up and data collecting.

8. Online ads

• Banners on related websites, niche organization resources, etc. Use indirect links or ones with the attribute rel=”nofollow”.
• Ads in the social networks
• Ads on local resources (craigslist.com, and so forth)

9. Traditional marketing and advertisement (in press, TV, radio), etc.

Improvement of the Website Conversion

1. Conversion from search engines

Make sure that <title> and meta description tags are sufficiently engaging and persuasive in order to refer visitors from search engine (SE) results to your website. Note that often SEs use information from just these tags in order to generate a search result snippet for the webpage:

2. Onsite user experience (UX) and conversion optimization

The top of the webpage (above the fold) usually should include:

• Clear and engaging statement of what is offered
• Easy to understand advantages and core benefits of your products or services
• Reasonable number of suitable photos (but don’t use sliders)
• Clear Call to Action (CTA)
• Testimonials and/or other kinds of social proof
• Such words as “free trial”, “no obligations”, “money back guarantee”, “trusted by”, “discount”, “we promise not to spam you”, “get instant access”, and so on
• Clear and simple navigation

Below the fold:

• Details of your product functionality
• Photos or screenshots of your products
• Expertise and photos of your team
• Clear CTA and contact information

See also Recent Tips on How to Improve the Website Conversion Rate.

Summary

Google is a company that was organized to make a profit, and their interests not always agree with your interests and goals. So, don’t completely rely on Google because you cannot control them. Be many-sided, flexible and creative in promotion of your website and constantly try to find techniques and approaches that really work in your business niche. That is the main secret of today’s marketing.

Sean Brown is the editor of HTMLcut blog. Starting as a software developer, now he is wearing the hat of marketing and copywriting manager.

I love this time of the year. It’s time for analysis and predictions:
Will code-free design rule the scene or designers should prepare to code more? Will new frameworks and designing in the browser change the web development process once and for all? Will websites become simpler or this simplicity is very deceptive, disguising rich functionality (almost like software applications have) and reflecting a new level of user experience? Will flat UI dominate? What about infinite scrolling? Are large images and hero areas, videos in place of text, and parallax here to stay forever or will disappear in a year? What about mix and match typography or dropping the sidebar? Bold colors vs. subtle monochromatic design – what will win? Will CSS completely replace images? And one more important question: Will PSD to HTML die?

Really, web design and development have been changing so fast and dramatically now. But what new will 2014 bring? Below we’ve gathered some most interesting predictions for 2014. Hope you like the collection.

What to Expect in Web Design 2014

1). >>> 7 web design trends you’ll actually see this year (and how to survive them)
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2014/01/7-web-design-trends-youll-actually-see-this-year-and-how-to-survive-them/
by Ben Moss: “If you look carefully you’ll see the roots of every major trend in the coming year start to develop in 2013 (or earlier). Whilst it’s possible that a genuinely revolutionary concept will be popularized, it’s far more likely that 2014 will be a year of small incremental gains, inspired by, or in response to, steady technological development. The future of web design is already evident, we just need to look behind us to see it. Here are 7 predictions for 2014 that are already proving true, and how you can survive them.”

2). What changed in web design this year (and what’s next)
http://sideproject.io/what-changed-in-web-design-this-year-and-whats-next/
by Brian Krall

3). >>> Top 10 web design trends and predictions for 2014
http://www.zingdesign.com/top-10-web-design-trends-and-predictions-for-2014/
by Jessica

4). >>> The biggest colour trends in web design in 2013
http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/colour-trends-web-design-2013-5133128
by Brandon Hill: “Brandon Hill highlights five big colour trends that hit web design in 2013. Did they appear on your sites?”

5). Web Design 2014: What to Watch Out For
http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/industry-trends/web-design-2014-what-to-watch-out-for/
by Jonathan Cutrell: “This year has been a brilliant year in web design. More than any other year perhaps, huge strides have been made towards the maturing of the field. Let’s have a look at some of what we can expect for the future of web design as an industry.”

6). Web Design: 20 Hottest Trends To Watch Out For In 2014
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/web-design-trends-2014/
by Jake Rocheleau: “In this article I want to share 20 growing trends I hope to see blossom over the course of 2014. Many have already been set in motion while others are just beginning to dawn. New trends are fun to check out and see how long they stick around. When browsing websites in 2014 keep your eyes peeled for any of these UI/UX trends in action.”

7). 10 Web design trends you can expect to see in 2014
http://thenextweb.com/dd/2013/12/29/10-web-design-trends-can-expect-see-2014/
by Amber Leigh Turner: “So while 2014 is knocking on the door, let’s look ahead and see what kind of new(ish) Web design trends we can look for and be inspired by come the new year.”

8). 18 pivotal web design trends for 2014
http://econsultancy.com/blog/64096-18-pivotal-web-design-trends-for-2014
by Chris Lake: “This collection is largely based on observation, vaguely educated guesswork, waving a finger in the air, and a bunch of other posts I’ve compiled in recent months. As such, some of these predictions may be more accurate than others!”

9). Ready for 2014? Check Out The Latest Web Design Trends
http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/web-design-trends-2014/
by Aditya Kanodia: “Now that we have entered in the year of 2014, it is essential to adapt more hotter and cheerful web design trends. Therefore, we bring you a list of the latest web design trends, which are most likely to be seen in 2014. Make sure to check out all of these web design trends.”

10). 10 Web Design Trends We Will See In 2014
http://www.effectivedesigns.co.uk/blog/10-web-design-trends-will-see-2014/
by Peter Stasiak: “Most of elements in our list are things seen in last year already, but we find it these will play main role in following year. So what is going to be web design trends 2014, though?”

11). Expected web design trends for 2014
http://www.redexperts.net/blog/expected-web-design-trends-for-2014
by Jakub Kośla: “Everyone wants to remain competitive and relevant to their target audience… Like fashion and technology, the styles of websites and blogs you see would also evolve and change. Below you will find a list of expected web design trends in approaching 2014.”

12). A Look Back at the Popular Web Design Trends from 2013
http://speckyboy.com/2013/12/23/look-back-popular-web-design-trends-2013
by Jake Rocheleau: “In this article I want to reflect back over 2013 at some of the more popular web design trends. Some have been going on for years, but I noticed a peak this year with more designers accepting and even improving upon these techniques.”

13). 2014 Predictions for Web Design
http://inside.envato.com/2014-predictions-for-web-design/
by Collis Ta’eed: “…I decided to spend some time thinking about the future for web and online design, and to take a stab at what next year and beyond might hold. If all goes well, this article will look awesome in a year. And if it doesn’t, well it sure is fun to speculate!”

14). Trends and Predictions: How the Future Looks Like for Web Design in 2014
http://www.instantshift.com/2013/12/31/how-the-future-looks-like-for-web-design-in-2014
by Adam Prattler: “I’m constantly on the look-out for what’s hot and what’s not in the web design world. While some may think that trends are just passing fads, I beg to differ – trends are what makes ideas grow to fruition, and what better way jump early on the first bandwagon than to predict these trends yourself?”

15). Web design trends of 2014 presented by Cubicle Ninjas
http://inspiredm.com/web-design-trends-2014-presented-cubicle-ninjas/
by Catalin Zorzini: “If you’re looking for inspiration to make your next web redesign a success, or you’re starting from scratch, make this the ‘go-to’ guide to beautiful web design in 2014.”

16). Web design trends for 2014 [Infographic]
http://visual.ly/web-design-trends-2014
by taylordavies8788: “What do we predict will be the web design trends in 2014? Here is an infographic with our predictions.”

17). The Top UX Trends of 2013
http://uxmag.com/articles/the-top-ux-trends-of-2013
by UX Magazine Staff

18). Best Web Designing Frameworks for 2014
http://www.sitepoint.com/best-web-designing-frameworks-2014/
by Syed Fazle Rahman: “In this article, we will list some of the best CSS frameworks that will help web designers and developers to explore their potential to build responsive and beautiful web applications in 2014.”

What to Avoid in Web Design 2014

1). Web Design Trends That Will Disappear in 2014
http://webdesignledger.com/trends-2/web-design-trends-that-will-disappear-in-2014
by Maryam Taheri: “Here are a number of styles that are dying out fast. Some are bad design, but many of the following have merely fallen in favor because they shined a little too brightly in 2013.”

2). 10 Web Design Trends to Leave Behind in 2014
http://www.wix.com/blog/2013/12/web-design-trends-2014/
by admin

3). 12 Web Design Trends That Are “Sooo 2000″
http://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/old-web-design-examples
by Meg Hoppe: “Here are the top 12 features NOT to include on your site (or remove if you’ve still got ‘em).”

4). Goodbye to 8 Design Elements Whose Time has Come
http://uxmag.com/articles/goodbye-to-8-design-elements-whose-time-has-come
by John McKinney: “Last year I welcomed the rattling death knell of several of my least favorite design elements and facets of technology. Some of them have died already, some are dying, and a couple have been recently diagnosed as ‘terminal.’ Looking forward, I think their diminishing presence will make 2014 a better year for experience design.”

5). >>> Terrible Web Design Trends
http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/terrible-web-design-trends/
by Rick Debus: “I’ll discuss some of the worst web design trends we have seen throughout the Internet’s history, many of which are – thankfully – not that common anymore.”

Will PSD to HTML Die?

1). PSD to HTML is Dead
http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/psd-to-html-is-dead
by Nick Pettit: “PSD to HTML tutorials are all over the web. In fact, many people have asked me why there’s not a PSD to HTML tutorial on Treehouse. In addition to the tutorials, there are lots of companies that will accept a PSD and convert it to a webpage for roughly $100 USD. Google returns more than 48 million results for a ‘psd to html’ search. It’s popular, but not the best way to make websites. If it’s so popular, then how can I say that it’s dead? Well… Let’s dig in.”

2). Be a Smart HTML/CSS Coder, or Die Out
http://www.htmlcut.com/blog/be-smart-html-css-coder.html
by Sean Brown: “Recently WebdesignerDepot has published an interesting post by Kendra Gaines. In her article Kendra asked: ‘Are coders an endangered species? …Sure, high-end development is necessary. Someone has to build the drag and drop tools for a start. But what about your average front-end developer, coding HTML and CSS; could they be on the brink of extinction?’ Below I’d like to share some thoughts that came to mind after reading Kendra’s article.”

Sergiy Lavryk is the CEO of HTMLcut, a markup coding company. He is an experienced web and software developer with over 12+ years of practical apps creation.

Although our blog is about PSD to HTML conversion, this time we’ll speak about another type of transformation: the website’s ability to convert a visitor into a person who performs specified actions such as to Like your content, buy your goods or subscribe to your newsletter. If design to markup coding is an important but intermediate stage of the website development, the website conversion is a final and ultimate goal of it.

In order to effectively improve the website conversion you should learn of lot of different and somewhat sophisticated subjects: psychology, color theory, user experience, and so forth. When optimizing the conversion rate, it is not easy to achieve the best result from the first attempt, and usually numerous tests are necessary. That’s why it’s important to collect and analyze the conversion improvement case studies.

In this post we’ve gathered some recent tips and case studies on how to improve the website conversion rate.

General Tips and Recommendations

1). How to Be the MacGyver of the Web: 9 Ways to Boost Your Conversion Rate on a Shoestring Budget
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/11/25/how-to-be-the-macgyver-of-the-web-9-ways-to-boost-your-conversion-rate-on-a-shoestring-budget/
by Neil Patel: “One of those ways in which you can grow your business is conversion optimization. Although it is still a new concept in the marketing world, you don’t have to hire consultants or employees to squeeze more money out of your existing visitor base. Here is how you can optimize your conversion rate on a shoestring budget.”

2). Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization – 91 Point Checklist and Infographic
http://moz.com/blog/holygrail-of-ecommerce-conversion-optimization-91-points-checklist
by CueBlocks.com: “This article will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real money lies – Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you bring to your website?”

3). >>> 10 Design Tips That Will Boost Your Online Credibility
http://blog.usabilla.com/10-design-tips-that-will-boost-your-online-credibility
by Sabina Idler: “Here are 10 expert tips how to boost your web credibility through personality.”

4). >>> 7 Simple Copywriting Tweaks That’ll Shoot Your Conversion Rate Up
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/08/05/7-simple-copywriting-tweaks-thatll-shoot-your-conversion-rate-up/
by Neil Patel: “The beautiful part about these tweaks is that you don’t have to be a professional writer or a wordsmith… these are simple changes that anyone can make. Here are 7 simple copywriting tweaks that’ll increase your conversion rate.”

5). 21 Conversion Optimization Best Practices for Beginners
http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/conversion-optimization-best-practices/
by Smriti Chawla: “…all methods to increase website sales and leads come down to better relevance, improving clarity, fewer distractions, reducing anxiety, and increasing urgency. When you take care of these, you should have good hypotheses to start off your tests.”

6). How to Improve Conversion Rates on Your Website
http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2013/11599/how-to-improve-conversion-rates-on-your-website-article-4-of-4
by Sean Ellis: “I’m going to cover ways to implement those insights in the conversion rate optimization process while avoiding the all-too-common trap of getting bogged down by minutiae.”

7). Top Ten Conversion Optimization Tips for Marketing Success
http://www.slideshare.net/chrisgoward/top-ten-conversion-optimization-tips-for-marketing-success
by Chris Goward: “Based on experience running thousands of tests on hundreds of websites globally, here are today’s Top 10 Tips for Marketing Optimization success.”

8). 3 Unconventional Ways to Boost E-Commerce Traffic & Sales
http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/11/28/boost-e-commerce-traffic-sales/
by Drew Kobb: “There are many ways to improve upon your strategies to bring more exposure and, more importantly, more conversions, for your brand. Check out these three strategies that are sure to boost e-commerce traffic and sales.”

Case Studies

1). How We Increased Our Conversion Rate By 311%
http://blog.statuspage.io/how-we-increased-our-conversion-rate-by-311-percent
by Steve Klein: “When we launched StatusPage.io in mid-March of 2013, our conversion rate was pretty terrible. …At the beginning of July, we started investing a serious amount of time into increasing that number and I’m happy to report that we’ve increased from .136% to .424% — an increase of 311%!”

2). 100 Conversion Optimization Case Studies
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/100-conversion-optimization-case-studies/
by admin

3). Evolution of a Landing Page
http://www.planningforaliens.com/blog/2013/06/02/evolution-of-landing-page/
by Sean Fioritto: “At the end of the conference Patrick McKenzie suggested doing a few teardowns and I was one of the lucky few selected. What followed was 20 minutes of Amy Hoy, Patrick McKenzie, Nathan Barry, Brennan Dunn and Marc-André Cournoyer dismantling my landing page. …Here is all of their advice and how I put it to use.”

4). Why Best Practices in Conversion Rate Optimization Aren’t Always Best
http://speckyboy.com/2013/06/04/why-best-practices-in-conversion-rate-optimization-arent-always-best/
by Darren G: “Conversion rate optimization is one of those cases where your guts can lead you astray. Even best practices, as described here, occasionally fail to produce results. Today we’ll explore some examples of some counter-intuitive findings in CRO where best practices weren’t always ‘best’.”

Landing Pages

1). 7 Things Every (Great) Landing Page Needs
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/09/26/7-things-every-great-landing-page-needs/
by Neil Patel

2). What Is a Landing Page? [FAQs]
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-a-landing-page-ht
by Corey Eridon

3). 12 Tests to Increase Your Landing Page Conversion Rate, Starting Today
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/07/11/landing-page-conversion-rate-guide
by Johnathan Dane: “The goal of this post is to give you proven ideas to test and try on your own site to increase your landing page conversion rates and lower your cost per acquisition.”

4). Landing Page Trivia Which Will Give You A Massive Conversion
http://www.instantshift.com/2013/05/14/landing-page-trivia-which-will-give-you-a-massive-conversion/
by Sanket Patel: “…clear information about the basic knowledge of landing pages covering the fundamental steps whichever preferred most.”

5). >>> Landing Page Design Trends for Selling Digital Products
http://speckyboy.com/2013/05/09/landing-page-design-trends-for-selling-digital-products/
by Jake Rocheleau: “In this article I hope to introduce a series of ideas for constructing great landing page layouts. It may take a bit of practice utilizing a series of alternate design patterns.”

6). Seven Steps to a Great Landing Page
http://www.sitepronews.com/2013/07/31/seven-steps-to-a-great-landing-page/
by Vishal Gumber: “The more your potential customers must make an effort to comprehend the value of your offer, the more likely it is they will get confused and be more than happy to click the back button. So keep it ‘wow-ing’ and ‘simple’ at the same time by following seven simple steps.”

7). Exploration of Beautifully Designed Product Pages
http://speckyboy.com/2013/04/15/exploration-of-beautifully-designed-product-pages/
by Alex Black: “We’ve brought together some examples of thoughtfully designed landing pages for hardware products. Each one does an impressive job of showing off the product, with copy that fits well and helps build demand for the hardware.”

8). A Showcase of Elegant, Beautiful Landing Pages
http://bloomwebdesign.net/2013/05/a-showcase-of-elegant-beautiful-landing-pages/
by alex black

9). Is Your Home Page Just One Big Cliche?
http://www.sitepoint.com/is-your-home-page-just-one-big-cliche/
by Georgina Laidlaw: “There are literally zillions of articles and resources out there telling us how to create a good home or landing page. And there’s definitely an argument for adopting best (and/or most successful) practices in our work. But when does successful trend become cliche?”

10). 6 Simple Elements That You Can Optimize for More Home Page Sign Ups
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/optimize-homepage-sign-ups/
by admin

Call To Action (CTA)

1). >>> 6 Proven Ways to Boost the Conversion Rates of Your Call-to-Action Buttons
http://www.copyblogger.com/call-to-action-buttons/
by Joanna Wiebe: “We need to stop ignoring the so-called ‘small things,’ especially when conversions depend on them. Instead, apply a few of the following click-boosting techniques in this post, which A/B tests have proven can generate conversion boosts ranging from 20 to 95 percent.”

2). >>> Why Is This Here? Why You See Weird Prices Online
http://speckyboy.com/2013/06/17/why-is-this-here-why-you-see-weird-prices-online/
by Darren G: “Pricing isn’t an art anymore. It’s a science with some well-documented and researched principles on how people think and compare when offered multiple options. …one of the most important principles to help you learn pricing is learning about decoys, or the ‘why is this here?’ effect, a phrase contained by me.”

3). >>> 10 Call-to-Action Case Studies w/ Takeaways & Examples from Real Button Tests
http://contentverve.com/10-call-to-action-case-studies-examples-from-button-tests/
by Michael Aagaard: “Here are 10 examples from A/B tests I’ve conducted, where I’ve experimented with everything from copy and button design over to the placement of the button.”

4). 6 Key Factors To Consider When Designing A Call To Action Button
http://blog.usabilla.com/6-key-factors-to-consider-when-designing-a-call-to-action-button/
by Daniela Baker: “The importance of the CTA button cannot be overlooked, and even small tweaks in design and wording can have a big impact. So before you design or re-design your buttons, consider the these 6 key factors.”

5). What Is The Best Call To Action Phrase For You?
http://blog.usabilla.com/what-is-the-best-call-to-action-phrase-for-you/
by Leanne Byrom: “This article covers the ‘Register’, ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Create an Account’ call to action.”

6). Click Here: 11 Ways to Improve Your Calls to Action
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/03/14/click-here-11-ways-to-improve-your-call-to-actions/
by Neil Patel: “One of the easiest ways you can boost your conversion rates is by optimizing your calls-to-actions (CTAs). Here are 11 ways you can improve your CTAs.”

7). 20 Critical Do’s and Don’ts for Clickable Calls-to-Action [SlideShare]
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34014/20-Critical-Do-s-and-Don-ts-for-Clickable-Calls-to-Action-SlideShare.aspx
by Jessica Meher: “…because we’ve worked with so many marketers over the years, we’ve seen our fair share of lackluster and underperforming CTAs in our day. So to help you get a handle on some of the most critical CTA best practices, this post …will uncover the good, the bad, and the ugly of calls-to-action, so you can learn what works (and what doesn’t) with CTAs.”

Article Round-ups and Collections

1). 666 Fresh Conversion Rate Optimization Tips – Curated by Oli Gardner
http://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/666-conversion-rate-optimization-tips/
by Oli Gardner: “Almost every post is from 2013 so you know they contain the latest thinking on the subject of conversion rate optimization. I say ‘almost’ because some were so good that they warranted being here even if they were a tad older.”

2). 23 Landing Page Optimization Articles From The Best In The Business
http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/01/25/best-landing-page-optimization-articles/
by Ritika Puri: “We’ve assembled some of the best landing page optimization articles from the brightest minds in the business.”

Sergiy Lavryk is the CEO of HTMLcut, a markup coding company. He is an experienced web and software developer with over 12+ years of practical apps creation.