Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

If you pay attention to web and graphic design styles, you may have noticed that this has been something of a trend in recent years. You might see blurred images popping up in website hero headers (the large images that extend the whole width of a page) or as site backgrounds, or to set off typography in graphic design.

But the design trends that stick around, like this one, usually do because they’re functional as well as beautiful — they have a purpose beyond just following the crowd or experimenting with a new look just because you can. Good trends do something to improve your designs.

So how can you use blurred images to enhance your own designs? Let’s look at 10 techniques....

Domain names have always had an impact in the branding and SEO of online businesses. In the past, online marketers used “Exact Match Domains” or EMDs, which are domain names that are the same as a key phrase they are targeting. Although this is no longer as effective after Google’s EMD update in 2012, coming up with a domain name that’s relevant and conveys a meaningful message to your would-be visitors. Adding a keyword or two in the domain name has also shown to increase a website’s performance in ads and SERP listings.

Given that domain names cannot be changed when registered, it is essential for businesses and bloggers to plan very carefully ahead.This is one of the most important decisions you should make for your site to take off. To help you determine the perfect domain name for your site, here are five of the best tools out there you should consider using....