It is said that ‘Imitation is the best form of flattery’. This is only true if you’re copying the style of your favorite actor or if you’re copying the good work ethic of your elder sister. But, not all imitations flatter people. If you copy a classmate’s assignment in school and submit it as yours, it will hardly flatter that person. Similarly, plagiarism in graphic design – like if you copy someone’s art – will never ever flatter the creator. Instead, you will be called out on social media and, worse, embroiled in legal proceedings.

Schemes of logo design plagiarism

A logo helps a brand differentiate itself from competitors. When a logo is copied, the copied brand gains an unfair advantage by leveraging the benefits that might come with mass recognition of the original. Logo design plagiarism is nothing new. From amateur designers to multinational design firms, they all have been guilty of this theft – the extent of the theft varies, but the practice is more rife than you think. There are many ways to rip off someone’s work and present it as yours, but three ways that are common include:

Complete rip-off

Logo plagiarism can vary from being a complete rip-off to a copy that shares an uncanny resemblance to your logo. Sometimes, artists claim they only take inspiration from a piece of art, but in reality, the artist might have taken more than “just inspiration” in creating something that resembles eerily with your patented creation.

For example, in 2019, rapper Lil Nas X released a sneaker design in collaboration with MSCHF, an art collective. It had all the rights features, but one thing stuck out like a luminescent light in the dark – Nike’s Swoosh logo. Nike sued Lil Naz for trademark infringement, and the two parties settled, with MSCHF agreeing to recall the sneakers and offer refunds to buyers.

Reflections or similarities

There is a very slim line between inspiration vs plagiarism, and sometimes brands have logos that aren’t a complete rip off of someone else’s work but still share a lot of similarities. It could be anything from the typography to color or even the style, while the intention wouldn’t be to copy the logo, the end product turns out to be something that forces consumers to put both pictures side by side and point out similarities. Take this example of Airbnb and Automation Anywhere.

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Airbnb officially launched a new logo in 2014. The iconic A, which we all instantly recognize today was created after a lot of thought. But there was just one problem. The logo was very similar to the one being used by a – then – small startup Automation Anywhere. It got to a point where both companies released a joint statement.

In early 2014 both Airbnb and Automation Anywhere began use of new logos that, by coincidence, have similar designs. Airbnb and Automation Anywhere are working cooperatively to address this issue, and Automation Anywhere is in the process of transitioning to a new logo design that is not similar to the Airbnb logo.

Well, the matter was resolved. Airbnb still uses its iconic A, but Automation Anywhere has a slightly different A now.

Trademark infringement

If you create a product that turns into something big, you get the right to call dibs on it. It’s yours now. You own it in the sense that none of your rivals can lay claim to that product/ marking in the future. For example, if today you invent a teleportation machine, and name it ‘Telepast’, it will be your trademark. Now no other teleportation device can use this name.

Trademarks lead to certain disputes as well because whatever you are creating, someone else has done it in the past, and some will do it in the future. So, labeling a trademark becomes trickier. Take the example of Apple. Do you know Apple is actually Apple Inc? And did you know before Steve Jobs founded Apple, there existed another company named Apple? Yes, The Beatles had already been running a multimedia company called Apple Corps Ltd. There was a dispute when Apple, the iPhone company, tried trademarking the use of the “Apple” name and logo. After multiple rounds of legal battles, the two companies reached a final agreement in 2007.

Legal standing for plagiarism in graphic design

Laws governing logo plagiarism, also known as trademark infringement or logo copying, can vary significantly from country to country. Trademark laws are generally designed to protect the rights of brand owners and prevent confusion among consumers.

In the United States, logo plagiarism is primarily addressed through trademark law, which aims to protect the rights of brand owners and prevent confusion among consumers. The main legislation governing trademark rights and protection is the Lanham Act (also known as the Trademark Act of 1946). Some of the key aspects of the law are:

Trademark registration

Trademark owners can register their logos with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It provides certain benefits, such as a presumption of ownership and the exclusive right to use the trademark nationwide in connection with the goods or services for which it’s registered. A trademark owner can take legal action against someone using a similar or identical logo if it’s likely to confuse consumers about the source of the goods or services.

Infringement claims

To establish a trademark infringement claim, the owner of the original logo needs to demonstrate that the alleged infringing logo is causing or is likely to cause consumer confusion. This might involve showing that consumers could mistakenly believe that the products or services associated with the infringing logo are connected to the trademark owner.

Remedies

If a trademark owner successfully proves infringement, they can seek various remedies, including:

Injunctive relief: A law court can issue an injunction to stop the infringing use of the logo.

Damages: The trademark owner can claim monetary damages, which might include the defendant’s profits from the infringing use or actual damages suffered by the trademark owner.

Destruction of infringing goods: In some cases, the court can order the destruction of goods bearing the infringing logo.

How logo plagiarism hurts brands

Brands and companies stand to lose a lot in the case of logo design plagiarism. From the loss of credibility to a financial hit, the copy of a company’s branding elements can significantly impact its business. Here are some ways businesses stand to lose in case of logo plagiarism.

Damage to brand identity

Logo plagiarism can have a significant impact on a brand’s identity and reputation. A brand’s logo is not just a visual representation, it’s a symbol of the brand’s values and personality and is its overall identity. When another entity copies or plagiarizes a logo, several damaging consequences can occur.

Legal consequences

Any case of logo plagiarism brings with it a set of legal consequences. It depends on whether you are the victim in the situation or not. In case you are aggrieved by intellectual property theft, you can take a number of actions to not only stop the use of your graphic elements but also recover the cost of any damage caused to your brand’s reputation or finances.

The brand can send a cease-and-desist letter to the infringing party, commanding that they stop using the copied logo and take corrective actions. The company can also file a trademark infringement lawsuit against the party that copied the logo. If the court determines that infringement has occurred, it can order the infringing party to stop using the copied logo.

The owner may seek monetary damages to compensate for any financial harm caused by the infringement. Damages can include the brand owner’s actual losses and the infringing party’s profits gained from the infringement, and even the legal fee accrued by the victim on legal proceedings.

Loss of trust and credibility

Logo plagiarism tarnishes the reputation of brands and results in the loss of customer loyalty by creating confusion and diminishing trust. Consumers may become confused by the similarity of logos, questioning the authenticity of products or services. This confusion erodes consumer trust as the genuine brand’s reputation is jeopardized by association with potentially lower-quality imitations.

Negative publicity

Logo plagiarism can seriously generate negative publicity for brands and leads to a slump in consumer perception at a time when this perception is a valued asset for any brand to stay relevant and popular. According to research, 88 percent of consumers say authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support. So clearly, in this day and age, no brand can afford to take a hit on its reputation.

But the logo of a popular brand on any shoddy product can seriously dent consumer trust and cause significant harm to the business. This puts doubts in consumers’ minds about the brand’s commitment to delivering genuine, reliable products or services. This negative attention can damage the brand’s reputation and public image, leading consumers to view the brand in a negative light.

Lost business opportunities

The losses incurred by a brand victim of plagiarism in design are short-term and long-term, while in the immediate aftermath, the brand might see a hit in reputation and financial losses, in the long-term future, it leads to a permanent loss of credibility and missed business opportunities that would have otherwise resulted in accelerated growth.

Final Thoughts

Plagiarism in graphic design leads to confusion among consumers about the authenticity and credibility of products or services. Consumers may hesitate to engage with a brand if they are uncertain about its legitimacy, leading to a loss of potential customers and business opportunities. Moreover, the decision to fight it out in court can also lead to legal costs and financial liabilities, diverting a huge pool of resources that could have otherwise gone into R&D or growth.

Another way logo plagiarism stifles a brand’s growth is by breaking the bond of trust. Brands spend a large amount of time cultivating trust with their business partners and customers, and any loss of reputation can break down this mutual trust which then takes a lot of rebuilding and results in loss of potential business opportunities.

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Like a human cell is the building block of life, a URL is the most basic element of the entire online world. And just like everything else on today’s internet, URLs are also optimized. After all, if a URL appears at the top of searches, the website is seen. URL optimization includes several strategies, including the best permalink structure for SEO.

A permalink, short for permanent link, is a URL that points to a particular web page or resource on the internet. Basically, it is www.yourwebsite.com/category/product or www.youwesbite.com/blog/title. Permalinks are permanent because it remains accessible even if the content of the page is moved within the website’s structure.

Permalinks are everywhere. From blogging platforms, e-commerce websites, news websites, etc. They are your way into all nooks and crannies of your website. They are there to ensure no content gets lost in the intricate web structure. Here are some examples to understand the structure of a permalink.

Blog Post Permalink: https://www.referenceblog.com/my-blog-post

News Article Permalink: https://www.newswebsite.com/news/article-title

Product Page Permalink: https://www.ecommercewebsite.com/products/product-name

Wikipedia Entry Permalink: https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/topic-title

If you ask me what the best permalink structure for SEO is, I won’t be able to answer it. The reason: there are many CMS out there, and each one of them has a different method to determine a permalink, provided you don’t customize it according to your liking.

Here’s the breakdown for major CMS on how they curate a permalink.

WordPress uses a combination of the post title, post slug, and post type to generate a permalink. The post title is the main title of the post, the post slug is a short, descriptive name for the post, and the post type is the “category” or “article.” But WordPress also allows you to customize permalink through its built-in permalink settings. You can define the permalink structure based on the post title, post ID, category, or a combination of these elements. It generates SEO-friendly permalinks automatically based on your chosen structure.

WooCommerce uses the post name by default, but this can be customized in the settings. For example, if you have a post called “My Blog Post,” the permalink would be “my-blog-post.”

Wix uses a combination of the page title and the URL slug, which can be customized in the settings. The URL slug can be up to 64 characters long and can include letters, numbers, and hyphens. For example, if you have a page called “My Pet Dog,” created in 2023, the URL slug might be “my-pet-dog-2023.”

Magento uses the product Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) by default, but this can be customized in the settings.

But all these CMS also offer in-built tools to customize permalinks for a uniform structure. You can modify these settings to create a structure of a URL the way you like.

Here are some of the best practices for best permalink structure for SEO

Consistent style

Permalinks can be created in a number of styles. You can add category titles, keywords, dates, years, numbers, etc. The important thing is that whatever style you choose, apply it to all pages so all permalinks have a consistent structure. Here are some examples of that:

Say you want to use the post title. Then the permalink will be www.example.com/post-title. If you want to add a category, then example.com/category/post-title. For post ID: www.example.com/post-id. Permalinks based on years look like this: www.example.com/year/post-title. You can also label pages numerically so that the permalink becomes something like this: www.example.com/category/numeric-id.

There are obvious benefits to maintaining a consistent style for your permalinks. It makes it easier for users to remember and bookmark your pages. If all of your pages have the same format, users will be able to easily find them again in the future.

Search engine-friendly URLs are the ones with a consistent style. It helps search engines index your pages more effectively as crawlers use the permalinks to understand the page’s content. It also improves the SEO as consistent permalink styles make it easier for people to find your pages.

A consistent style also makes your website more presentable and professional. A consistent permalink style is one of the small details that can make a big difference in the overall look and feel of your website.

Add slug

Slugs are short, URL-friendly versions of the page title used to omit unnecessary words or characters. They help create concise and descriptive permalinks optimized for both users and search engines.

Adding slugs improves the readability of URLs by removing unnecessary characters or words from the permalink. They can:

• make URLs more user-friendly and easier to remember
• organize content on a website by making it easier to find specific pages
• help to track the performance of individual pages on a website

Permalinks with slugs also help users easily share your content or create backlinks to your webpage. A concise and descriptive slug makes it easier for them to reference and link to the specific page.

Slugs can follow a variety of styles. They should be short and easy to remember. The URL slug best practices involve avoiding the use of special characters or spaces in slugs and using hyphens instead of underscores to separate the words.

The process of adding a slug to permalinks can vary depending on your CMS.

In WordPress, a permalink can be modified to add a slug by editing the post or page URL directly. When creating or editing a post, locate the Permalink or URL field, and modify the text to include your desired slug. WordPress will automatically generate a slug based on the post title, but you can customize it as needed.

In Magento, you can add slug in permalinks in the admin panel. From the admin panel, go to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > Search Engine Optimization. From there, you can enable URL rewrites and customize the URL Key field to include the desired slug.

In Wix, permalinks are automatically generated based on the page title. While you cannot directly modify the permalink structure, you can customize the page title to include the desired slug.

Add keywords

Adding keywords is a bit of an extension of adding slugs, but they are more specific and give a considerable boost to your search engine rankings for specific keywords.

Like your web content, targeted keywords can be added to your permalink. They can be the primary keywords or key phrases relevant to the content. Incorporate these keywords into the permalink to give search engines a clear signal about the page’s topic. For example, if your target keyword is “best lawn mower,” your permalink could be myonlinestore.com/best-lawn-mower.

Some of the best practices to add keywords in the permalink are:

• place keywords closer to the beginning of the permalink
• avoid keyword stuffing and maintain a natural and readable structure
• add long-tail keywords as they attract more search traffic
• use hyphens to separate keywords

Keeping within Google’s average character limit

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Although Google’s maximum character limit is 255 characters, the average permalinks still stand at 32 characters. The reason is that even though the search engine giant allows you to add over 250 characters, it cannot display all of them on the SERP. If you exceed the maximum character limit, Google will truncate your permalink and add ellipsis (…) to the end or in the middle.

Not only from the SEO point of view, long and complex URLs are also a turnoff for humans. They are impossible to remember, and honestly, URLs with numerous parameters, query strings, or unnecessary characters look damn ugly.

Don’t add redundant words

Permalinks are like the headline of a newspaper, you will rarely find any article, preposition, and helping verbs in them. Reason? These words eat up valuable character limits. Articles, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs are called ‘stop words’ and should be removed from permalinks. Repetitive Keywords and unnecessary descriptors should also not be a part of permalinks. No one wants a black-suede-leather-jacket-with-black-shoulder-patch-in-medium-size. Use black-suede-leather-jacket instead.

Here are some examples of permalinks with redundant words that have been improved to create the best SEO URL structure.

Old: the-washington-post-times-article-about-taylor-swift-and-her-eras-tour

New: washington-post-times-article-taylor-swift-eras-tour

Old: the-best-pizza-in-new-york-city

new: best-pizza-new-york-city

Old: the-top-10- must-do-things- in-san-francisco

New: top-10-must- do-things-san-francisco

Add hyphens

Adding hyphens in the permalink is important because it makes the permalink more readable and easier to remember. It also helps to prevent confusion with other similar links. Additionally, hyphens can help to improve the SEO of your website by making your links more relevant to search engines.

Hyphens are also a preferred separator in permalinks as they improve overall readability. Other characters like underscores, spaces, or special characters in permalinks can lead to readability issues, and potential misinterpretation, and may also not be search engine friendly.

Tools to create the best permalink structure for SEO

If this all seems like a lot of work to you, don’t worry. You don’t have to do it all by yourself. There are built-in permalink modifiers in CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. They allow you to customize permalinks. These tools offer settings to define the permalink structure, automatically generate permalinks based on post titles, and allow you to edit or customize the generated permalinks.

There are also plugins for CMS like Yoast SEO, Rank Math, SEOPress, The SEO Framework, Squirrly SEO, or All in One SEO Pack. These plugins provide advanced permalink settings and optimization features, allowing you to customize permalinks, add keywords, and ensure SEO best practices.

For more complex and customized permalinks, you may need the services of a web developer to cater to your custom requirements. Working with web developers or utilizing programming languages like PHP, you can create custom permalink structures tailored to your needs and integrate them into your website.

Final Words

These are the tips to create the best permalink structure for SEO. They can help you ensure that all your web pages are optimized for search engines as well as for the users. A simple URL is an attractive sight that looks clean in the URL box and improves the users overall experience.

Time and again, it has been proved that a logo design can turn the tables for any company. A carefully designed logo not only identifies a brand but also becomes the identity of a company. You may not think of it as much, but you immediately think of Nike whenever you see a big check sign.

This is how powerful a logo is. Anyways, we are not going to indulge in jotting down the pros of a logo. This article is all about the evolution of one of the most infamous online movie streaming platforms. Yes! We certainly are talking about Netflix.

We will go as far as to say that Netflix does not need any introduction. We all familiar with the streaming service, and some of us are quite addicted to it.

But did you know Netflix had a very different logo at first from the big, bold one in red you see today? If we are diving that far into history, the streaming service was not even named Netflix at first. Instead, it was named Kibble by the creators Marc and Reed.

Since then, the two masterminds behind this brilliant idea have not looked back, and Netflix itself has gone through quite some changes.

Let’s have a look at the changes in the Netflix logo over the years.

The First One

In the year 1997, when Netflix was born, the logo was completely different from what we see today. When we say different, it means the logo had a different approach and an entire colour scheme.

https://brand.netflix.com/en/assets/

The logo was hues of purple and violet, with a film wrapped around the text “Netflix” separating “Net” from the “Flix”. This logo was used until 2000.

The 360^O Change

In 2000, the designers took a 360^O change. They changed the logo entirely, and instead of using lighter tones such as purple and violet, this time bold colours were used.

https://brand.netflix.com/en/assets/

A red background carrying the bold letters in white font with a black outline was used. The red colour in the background was supposed to make the logo pop out. And honestly, it did a pretty good job at popping out and getting stuck in our heads.

But the story doesn’t end here. There have been further changes in the Netflix logo. Let’s find out.

The One We See Today

The logo with a red background, white font, and bold black outline was changed in 2014. This time, the red background was changed to white, and the font was red.

https://brand.netflix.com/en/assets/

The designers decided to keep the red colour as it had already become the brand identity of Netflix. This also the logo we see today on our screens.

But the creativity of designers at Netflix does not stop here. To immortalise the logo in the heads of audience, a big bright N is flashed on the screen before the start of movies and series. This is another way of marking Netflix’s identity. Because to recognise the logo of Netflix, we don’t have to see the whole logo.

https://brand.netflix.com/en/assets/

We see the flashy red N on-screen and bam, our mind immediately recognises it. This is how powerful a logo is when done right.

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I remember when I started doing Search Engine Optimization, life was simple. There was only SEO for Google rankings. We all were happy. Now you look around, and there is a separate optimization guide for everything – YouTube SEO, PlayStore SEO, SEO for mobile apps, and even an Amazon SEO guide.

You knew it, didn’t you, that whatever you see on Amazon is there for a reason. It is a science. It is tailored for every user so that they keep spending their money. The listings are optimized to such a level that customers don’t even have to type what they’re looking for. You want a couch? How about these curtains that go with it? Or this rug that will uplift the look of your entire room? And just like that, the cart is full, and now the customers are hanging between guilt and fulfillment.

It’s not only the buyers who throng Amazon for convenience, for sellers, too, this is a land of opportunity. The place makes over $500 billion in a year. The pie is humongous for every seller to have an ample share. Amazon’s 300 million active users, plus the 2.2 billion who visit Amazon.com each month, are always looking for things to buy. Now if your products jump in front of them, then Boom! Jackpot.

Selling on Amazon

To bring your product up on Amazon, you first need to understand how the website lists products. Amazon uses a unique algorithm to determine the ranking of products in the search results. The latest iteration is the A10 algorithm. With this update, the customer’s convenience, which has always been Amazon’s priority, has become more paramount.

Research shows that the A10 algorithm takes customers straight to their desired products, bypassing any recommended or other search products in the process. It promotes sellers who are bringing new users to the site. The company also rewards sellers whose products generate more impressions or views and have high click-through and conversion rates.

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Every product on the website must be relevant to what people want. Only then does it stands a chance to appear above the millions of other products in the same category. This doesn’t only mean adding keywords to the title. There are a host of other factors like product description, photography, categorization, conversion rate, reviews, and, most importantly, pricing.

The complete Amazon SEO guide

In this blog, we will delve deep into how to optimize these metrics and also let you in on a few secret tools that are not explored by many sellers.

The title, description, and details

Any product listing is nothing without its accompanying details. They are the first, and the most important piece of your entire Amazon SEO strategy. This part includes optimization of your titles and product descriptions.

Titles are the most basic element of a good Amazon listing. It’s common sense, right? After all, buyers, search for a product by putting up terms in the search box. How closely those terms relate to your products’ title will decide the placement of your product. The title must define your product’s brand, key features, and benefits.

Here’s a snapshot of the first result which appears when I search for ‘Sephora Eyeliner’

Look at the title. It has the brand’s name, the quantity, and a key feature, ‘liquid intense ink liner’.

Title length and composition

The recipe to craft the perfect title starts with staying within the character limit – 200, including spaces.

The first five words of the title are the most important, as Amazon uses them for your product’s URL. The link for the above Sephora eyeliner is amazon.com/Sephora-Collection-Eyeliner-Liquide-Intenese. Amazon’s other guidelines for ideal titles are:

• Don’t use special characters
• Don’t mention rewards like “free shipping” or “discount”
• Don’t use ALL CAPS, and capitalize each word of the title
• Use the number ‘2’ instead of two
• Don’t include the merchant’s name

Keywords research

Keywords are central to every Amazon SEO guide. The easiest way to do keyword research is by looking at other sellers’ listings and seeing what words they are targeting.

However, a more elaborate way to go about it is by benefitting from Amazon’s ample resources. One of them is the Amazon ASIN Lookup Tool. It is a hub of business intelligence to provide sellers with the data to improve their sales. ASIN, or Amazon Standard Identification Number, is a unique identifier of 10 letters and/or numbers for a product assigned by Amazon.com. No two products have the same ASIN

In this tool, sellers can enter the ASIN number of their products and get a list of high search volume and trending keywords in Amazon search ranking.

There are also several other tools for looking for ideal keywords to improve your Amazon ranking. My favorite among them is the Keyword Tool. It is a paid tool, but the in-depth information it provides makes every penny worth it. Other tools are Google Keyword Planner, Ahref’s keyword tool, SellerApp, and Keyword Inspector.

Bullet points and description

Ideal bullet points are clear, concise, and within the limit of 1000 characters. Relevant keywords can also be added here to optimize the product listing. Use the first bullet point to highlight the USP of your product. Second and third, to address questions that might be on people’s minds. Fourth, to state any offer, discount, or gift, and fifth, for telling the customers why buying from you will be convenient.

Search terms

Search terms are there to stop you from keyword stuffing in the title. They are part of a product’s description to improve its discoverability. Search terms are optional, however, adding them can give a serious boost to your products.

Here, you can add generic words and synonyms for your product. For example, if you are selling electronic products, you can add synonyms like appliances or related terms like light bulbs, energy-efficient products, etc., in your search terms.

Product listings can also be optimized using Brand Content or A+ Content. Sellers registered with Amazon Brand Registry can benefit from Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) by using engaging multimedia, detailed product descriptions, and storytelling for a richer shopping experience.

Price Competitively

According to Amazon statistics, more than two-thirds (68%) of Amazon sellers operate with profit margins higher than 10%. This is despite the fact that Amazon only allows the most competitive and the lowest price to sell on the platform.

Varun Soni, Amazon’s Product Manager for Pricing, said that Amazon ranking system considers a price as competitive if it is equal to or less than the product’s price offered by reputable retailers outside Amazon.

This price must include the cost of:

• Product
• Packaging
• Shipping
• Additional Product Cost for FBM – warehousing and shipping to customers
• Amazon Fees – commission and payment wiring
• Amazon Fees for FBA – storage, customer returns
• Miscellaneous Expenses – transportation, digital tools, employees

Amazon wants its customers to pay the lowest possible price, and it only offers its coveted Buy Box to sellers who help it achieve the goal. Buy Box is a place where your ‘Add to Cart’ and ‘Buy Now’ buttons appear. For sellers who don’t offer competitive prices, Amazon, under their listing, simply shows a list of sellers who are offering a lower price for the same product. So, if your price is not the lowest, you are not even in the game.

How to set competitive prices

Amazon sends out an email every time a price is uncompetitive. The email contains all ASINs that are not competitively priced. It means none of these products will have the Buy Box. Sellers will have to modify these prices to sell their products.

In Amazon Seller Centre, there is a Pricing Health Page under the Pricing tab. It has all the information a seller needs to competitively price their goods. It also mentions all products which have a higher price than other sellers.

Another tool is automating pricing. It allows retailers to update pricing in a fast and simpler way. Sellers only need to add their products to the tool, and their prices will be updated as soon as other sellers or retailers outside Amazon modify their prices. The tool is fully customizable, and sellers can set the limit for their listing’s lowest possible price.

Amazon also offers APIs for those who don’t frequently log into their Seller Central account. The Amazon Marketplace Web Service (MWS) APIs enable sellers to set prices through third-party repricing tools. It sends a notification anytime a price is changed for the top 20 offers on a particular ASIN.

One thing is that AWS APIs will not be available from March 31, 2024. So, if you are using MWS API, you must move to Selling Partner API (SP-API) to keep benefiting from the tool.

Use Amazon PPC to Rank Higher

According to experts, Amazon is giving more importance to PPC in its new A10 algorithm, allowing for more visibility and a better chance to convert into a sale. These products appear with a ‘Sponsored’ tag when a customer enters a related term in the search box and also in the competitor’s listings.

For example, in the below example, we typed the term ‘fit bit’ in the search box. In the listing, these products appeared with Sponsored tag, meaning that they have been advertised for the keyword. These ads are ideal to appear among the top listings for a particular keyword. In the image below, all listings

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Amazon will only run your ads for the exact keyword. It is very precise and target oriented. Here, you can use your keyword research for title optimization. The trick is to find the most high-volume keywords that are also closely linked to your product.

Amazon will show a list of price ranges for all keywords. You have to bid for each keyword. The higher the bid is, the more chance a seller has to appear on the first search page.

Optimized images

No Amazon SEO guide is complete without image optimization. A good image is a make or break for buyers in deciding whether to buy or dump a product. Images are so important for products that Amazon has a set of guidelines and even style guides for sellers.

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An optimized product image is one that matches the product title, and the product must cover at least 85% of the image. The image’s file names must include the product identifier or ASIN number. Amazon strictly forbids text, borders, logos, mannequins, insets, and watermarks in images.

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For every listing, a seller can upload one main product image and up to eight supporting images. The supporting images can also include a video. Text and product features can be added to supporting images.

Get Positive Reviews

Every online seller is hungry for reviews. Numbers show that approximately 95% of consumers read product reviews before buying on Amazon. Sellers can leverage this important tool to improve their authenticity. Thus it becomes vital when doing SEO for Amazon products.

Brands enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry can use the in-built tool to review, track and reply to reviews. Sellers can log in to their accounts and hover over the Brands tab. Click on Build Your Brand and select Customer Reviews. This will display all reviews on your products in chronological order.

There are also ways to seek customer reviews. For example, SellerApp has a Chrome extension that allows sellers to ask customers for reviews.

Parting thoughts

We hope this Amazon SEO guide would have helped you as the competition is stiff, and rules tight. There are tons of things that go into a brand listing that appears on the first page or even the first product. It is a process that never stops because Amazon never stops innovating. To sell more, your listings must be fully optimized not only in accordance with the customer’s needs but also with algorithm requirements. This will decide whether you’re among the top sellers or just one of the millions already on the platform, regardless of whether you sell on Amazon without inventory or with inventory.

“I do not seek. I find,” said Pablo Picasso. This quote represents a meaningful definition of search in current day-to-day living. It could be the search for friendship, a job, education, business development, or whatever is now happening online. Therefore, you should go the extra mile to ensure your brand has enough information to pique users’ curiosity on the web.

As Google constantly strives to deliver the most accurate and satisfying search results, you need to make sure visitors can find extensive information about your company or personality. Thus, individual entrepreneurs and enterprises try to get their data in the Google Knowledge Graph to appear in SERPs precisely and help users discover new information quickly and seamlessly.

This article will help you to comprehend the Google Knowledge Graph and the importance of structured data. Moreover, you will also learn how to get your brand in the Google Knowledge Graph and showcase your logo schema there in particular.

What is the Google Knowledge Graph?

Launched in 2012, the Google Knowledge Graph is a giant database empowering Google search features and Google services and containing billions of facts about people, places, organizations, things, and the relationships between them.

The Knowledge Graph collects information from various sources like schema markup, websites, user-contributed content, licensed databases, etc. It helps the Google search engine elevate its intelligence by understanding the context of search queries, establishing connections, improving search accuracy, and delivering more comprehensive search results.

Google Knowledge Graph vs. Google Knowledge Panel

These two terms are often misinterpreted and even considered the same. Although they have different meanings and purposes, both are intertwined, and here is how:

The Google Knowledge Graph is an independent database or giant virtual encyclopedia containing an assortment of facts about almost everything. Meanwhile, the Google Knowledge Panel is an information box on the right of the Google search results. The Knowledge Panels aim to provide users with instant information about an entity or topic, linking additional sources and showing related information.

Moreover, due to the mobile-oriented search, you can see multiple Knowledge Panels for a single search query. For example, take a look at the Google Knowledge Panels about Pablo Picasso.

Source: Google Search Results

The Google Knowledge Panel extracts information from the Google Knowledge Graph to showcase it further for specific entities in search results. So, the Knowledge Panels visualize relevant information from the Knowledge Graph, like in the example below.

Source: Google Search Results

The Importance of Having Your Logo in the Knowledge Graph

Having your company logo schema, name, address, and other information stored in the Google Knowledge Graph is lucrative for user experience and SEO. The thing is that when you feed the Knowledge Graph with accurate data, you boost your chances of obtaining rich snippets containing more detailed information on your company

So users can get to know your brand instantly, and, at the same time, the search engine can perceive your context better and showcase precise results in the Google Knowledge Panel, improving your SERP visibility and brand exposure.

Source: Google Search Results

Moreover, a visually appealing logo displayed in the Knowledge Panel can boost your authority and impact the click-through rate, as you may also appear in SERPs for non-branded search queries.

Source: Google Search Results

How to Get Your Brand into Google’s Knowledge Graph

The logic behind the Google Knowledge Graph and Google Knowledge Panel is that you can’t just create an entity there. Therefore, no single portal or platform will allow you to register or authorize your company to appear in the Knowledge Graph.

However, you can make certain efforts to feed the Google Knowledge Graph with your data and then let your brand information appear in SERPs via an informative Knowledge Panel.

Generate Schema Markup for Your Website

Schema markup refers to a structured data vocabulary allowing search engines to understand your website’s content and purpose. Schema.org is an official markup used to specify website structured data.

Google supports structured data markups, so consider sorting out all the information on your website to create proper markups for articles, events, breadcrumbs, logo schema markups, and more. The accuracy of your schema markup can impact your ranking and click-through rate, as well-thought-out structured data markup helps you to appear in search with a rich snippet.

Source: Google Search Results

Remember to test your structured data once you assemble the schema markup for your website pages.

Refine Your Website Content

If you dream of getting a SERP feature for your brand, it’s necessary to write compelling content and optimize it accordingly when you get started. In fact, Google cherishes content created with readers in mind.

Share your experiences, be honest and open-minded, provide advice where applicable, and discuss curated content with your audience. Emphasizing your story with images, videos, memes, GIFs, and other visual content is highly recommended. Your mission is to write clear, helpful, and thoroughly organized content in a way that Google will understand immediately.

Try to ensure your content is wrapped with structured data markup and select the most lucrative keywords to maximize your chances of higher rankings. With Search Engine Ranking, you can analyze all SERP features for targeted queries and apprehend a Google keyword ranking. The tool allows you to monitor keyword rankings in Google for any location, language, and device, providing a solid blueprint for targeting keywords.

Source: SE Ranking

Create Pages on Wikipedia, Wikidata.org, and Crunchbase

As most Google Knowledge Graph results come from Wikipedia and other similar authoritative sources of information, showcasing your business on Wikipedia, Wikidata.org, and Crunchbase is the first thing to consider.

Having these pages live, properly sourced, and well-written for your brand means sharing essential company information with Google, and getting better options to appear in search.

Source: Wikipedia

Create a Google My Business Profile

Having your company listed on Google My Business is essential if you operate a physical business with an exact address. Add relevant information such as your business name, logo, location, business hours, website, phone number, etc.

This will boost your online visibility in search and Google Maps. Furthermore, it will also help you to get on Google Knowledge Panel for local searches.

Source: Google Search Results

Run Profiles on Social Media

Maintaining active social media profiles for your brand on social networks is crucial for getting into the Google Knowledge Graph. Wrap your profiles in your brand identity, share evergreen content that will boost user engagement, and optimize your social pages with keywords related to your business niche.

Creating one-of-a-kind LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter profiles is vital, as the Google algorithm pays precise attention to social media signals when arranging positions in SERPs and picking the content to be represented via the Knowledge Panel.

Source: Google Search Results

Understanding Structured Data for Logos

Structured data helps search engines identify your page and examine specific elements of its content, like the logo. Understanding structured data for your logo matters greatly, as correct schema logo markup affects your visibility in search results and brand recognition. For instance, the Food Network’s team obtained a 35% increase in organic traffic after adding structured data to 80% of their site’s pages.

Simply put, logo structured data refers to enriching website pages with specific code or markup, allowing search engines to interpret and extract information about company logo design. Valid structured data markup for logos enables search engines to adequately grasp your brand logo details and display them accurately in response to related search requests.

Schema.org has variations of structured data markup guidelines for website pages depending on the purpose of the page and its content. Such a unified vocabulary allows for enhancing website pages with structured data and helps different search engines perceive page content efficiently and improve page appearance in search results.

Simply put, you can utilize three primary types of structured data formats to implement Schema.org properties — JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa.

JSON-LD

JSON-LD, or JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data, is a data format that allows you to specify structured data clearly so that users and search engines can understand it at a glance. This data format combines lightweight JSON and Linked Data, striving to connect data pieces and build relationships between them. Google recommends using JSON-LD format for structured data markup due to its simple integration and maintenance.

This data format enables you to underpin your data with context and connect corresponding entities facilitating page content processing for search engines. See the code example in JSON-LD format below.

Source: Google Search Central

Microdata

Microdata format allows adding structured data to HTML code by marking up specific page elements (<body> element, rarely <head> element) with itemtype, itemprop, and itemscope attributes to indicate page description and content.

In other words, HTML microdata promotes the streamlining of page content for search engines and can help you achieve a higher usability and search visibility score.

Source: Wikipedia

RDFa

RDFa, or Resource Description Framework in Attributes, is an HTML5 extension supporting data linking through HTML tag attributes. This format can be used in <body> and <head> webpage elements.

RDFa format allows for providing page content details by describing data properties and highlighting relations between different data pieces. In short, it helps to make your website pages more meaningful for search engine crawling.

Source: Schema.org

How to Use Logo Structured Data to Get in the Google Knowledge Graph

To generate an accurate structured data markup for your logo, consider following the Schema.org guidelines containing up-to-date recommendations suitable for all major search engines.

1.   Select an Appropriate Logo Schema Markup

When it comes to structured data logo markup, it is crucial to pick the most relevant schema type. The “Organization” type of schema markup is most appropriate for logo structured data. It tells search engines that your logo represents a particular organization.

Source: Schema.org

Another option is the “WebSite” schema markup, which shows search engines that your logo represents a set of related web pages served from a single domain.

2.   Add Structured Data to Your Website

First and foremost, specify the correct logo image URL to add logo schema markup to your site. To do so, utilize the “logo” property; it will help you create an accurate logo image file URL.

Remember to use an official, high-quality, and high-resolution logo image that represents your organization or brand. The minimum image resolution should be 112×112 pixels. Additionally, ensure your logo file is hosted on an accessible server, as Google will need to fully crawl and index your logo image URL.

Source: Google Search Central

Secondly, include the logo schema markup on your homepage. Depending on your data format, you need to define the most accurate place to insert your structured data logo markup.

For example, JSON-LD allows for implementing the markup in the <script> tag in the <head> and <body> elements of the web page. The HTML microdata is typically placed in the <body> element but can also be set to an HTML page’s <head> element. Meanwhile, RDFa can be used in the <head> and <body> HTML page sections.

Next, consider testing and validating your logo schema structured data markup after implementing it on your website. To do so, use the Rich Results Test by Google. The tool will help ensure your markup is correct and can be seamlessly accessed by search engines.

Source: Rich Results Test

Additionally, go the extra mile to make your logo schema markup meet search essentials, general structured data, and technical Google guidelines. Otherwise, the updated data will not be eligible for a rich result.

For instance, be sure that neither the robots.txt file, the noindex tag, nor the login requirements block your page, as this is one of the essential access requirements mentioned in the technical guidelines.

3.   Let Google Fetch Your Structured Data

Once your structured data logo markup is sharpened to meet all the requirements, you can ask Google to inspect your updated website pages. To do so, open your Google Search Console account, select the necessary website property, navigate to the Sitemaps section, and submit your sitemap to Google for recrawling.

Source: Google Search Console

Monitoring the Google Knowledge Graph

There is no guarantee you will obtain a Google Knowledge Panel showing some of your business information extracted from the Google Knowledge Graph, and there is no exact timeframe for this process. Nevertheless, monitoring your progress is crucial to ensure your brand has a remarkable logo showcase in search results.

Therefore, perform a branded search regularly to determine if the Google Knowledge Graph data is displayed within the Knowledge Panel in SERPs. By doing so, you can check how the database perceived your structured data logo markup and verify if the logo image has an up-to-date and eminent appearance.

On top of that, consider boosting your search engine optimization efforts in order to help search engines precisely understand the relationship between your website pages and review their content. Enhancing pages with relevant niche-related keywords, appropriate meta tags, and proper structured data markup significantly increases your chances of being seen and found online by the right people.

Moreover, by doing so, you can explain your business to search engines and broaden your connections between your site pages so that your logo schema markup and other structured data can create a coherent, rich-result appearance for your brand.

Conclusion

The Google Knowledge Graph is an extensive encyclopedia standing behind the Google Knowledge Panel, providing the most accurate data on brands, people, places, and things. Getting your business information in the Google Knowledge Graph can significantly improve your brand standing and impact your online visibility.

However, there is no single way to get into the Knowledge Graph and control the data it shows online users, which can make things unpredictable, effortful, and time-consuming. But your hard work on website optimization and structuring can help you achieve this goal.

Broaden your SEO efforts and ensure your website pages have sufficient structured data featuring the logo, brand name, geolocation, and other essentials your potential customers may want to explore. Doing so will surely bring you that awaited Knowledge Panel prominently exhibiting your brand in search results.

In today’s competitive business landscape, establishing a strong brand identity is crucial for the success and growth of any small business. A key component of this brand identity is a well-designed logo. Small business logos can represent your business visually, significantly impacting how your target audience perceives your brand.

Knowing that a logo conveys ownership, excellence, and ideas is crucial for small business owners. Logos for small businesses are usually seen by customers before exploring the business products, business cards, websites, or social media platforms, marking a crucial first impression on your customers.

Reasons to Have Small Business Logos in 2023

This blog post will explore essential reasons why your small business needs a logo. Let’s get started!

1. Logo Enhances Visual Communication

For logos, understanding the definition of brand is important. Once done, they can prove to be a powerful tool in enhancing the visual communication of your business. This is based on the philosophy that customers tend to remember images more than words. Thus, a well-designed logo can capture the essence of your business and communicate it to your audience in a visually appealing manner. This can be done using an attractive combination of colors, fonts, and symbols.

A logo can convey your business’s personality, values, and unique selling points, making it easier for customers to recognize and remember your brand. A logo that successfully connects with the audience helps develop a brand image for the organization.

Every time viewers see a distinctive and appealing logo, they are more likely to remember the brand. It promotes brand development. Building a brand is all about establishing confidence in a company’s operations. Therefore, when a logo design is attractive, it attracts customers because they link good design to reliability and the caliber of an organization’s goods or services.

2. Logo Supports Digital Marketing Efforts

In today’s digital age, having a solid digital identity is crucial for small businesses. Small business logos can play a crucial role in supporting your digital marketing efforts, especially when performing Google ads competitor analysis. It is a visual anchor for your website, social media profiles, and digital advertisements, creating a consistent and professional look across different platforms.

A well-placed logo can also help drive online traffic to your website and increase brand recognition, as users are likelier to click on ads or visit a website with a visually appealing and recognizable logo.

When clients interact with an organization, they’ll first notice the logo. A customer’s first impression of a company’s logo is believed to be created in less than two seconds. It means a logo should be appealing and memorable to leave a lasting impression.

A logo’s aesthetics help a business develop an emotional connection with its clients. A logo created to appeal to a specific market might aid in fostering a sense of belonging and community. Modern business logos can inspire feelings and foster favorable associations with a brand, boosting client loyalty.

An eye-catching logo raises company loyalty and represents the individuals who use it on their clothing, bags, and accessories. To further emphasize this concept, businesses should highlight their service while displaying their logo.

3. Logo Conveys Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility

Consumers have become increasingly concerned about sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in recent years. A logo can be a powerful tool to communicate your business’s commitment to these values. By incorporating eco-friendly colors, symbols, or elements that represent your sustainable practices, you can demonstrate your dedication to CSR.

Using a logo to highlight your involvement in charitable initiatives or community projects, you can showcase your commitment to CSR values, which can resonate with socially-conscious consumers and help differentiate your business from competitors.

While incorporating natural components might be beneficial, you must avoid clichés and outdated stereotypes that could give your logo a dull, uninspired, or redundant appearance. For instance, you shouldn’t use a green circle with a white recycle symbol or a globe with a hand clinging to it as they are exaggerated and generic.

Instead, you want to set yourself apart from your rivals by creating an original and innovative manner representing your environmental and social responsibility themes. To test and improve the look of your design, think about logo ideas for small businesses that integrate sustainable and social responsibility elements.

Acquiring input from your target market, clients, business partners, or peers can help you determine how people view and react to your logo. To gauge the success and influence of your logo, you may also utilize web tools like polls, analytics, and surveys. You can modify and enhance your logo design based on feedback and data until you get the desired outcomes.

4. Logo Enables Personalization

A well-designed logo can be versatile and adaptable, allowing you to personalize it for different marketing campaigns or special events. You can make minor tweaks to your logo, such as changing the colors or adding temporary elements, to align it with specific promotions or seasonal themes.

Best modern logos incorporate a personalized design to resonate with specific audiences. We will take Toyota’s example to study the personalization factor in logos. The current Toyota logo design took roughly five years to develop. The intertwined ellipses represent the bond between Toyota and its consumers.

Toyota’s logo is an embodiment of personalization (Source: Pixabay)

Toyota’s emblem is one of a kind due to its distinctive three-oval design. The overlapping ovals give the design a sense of motion and harmony. Toyota’s unique look is instantly recognizable and helps the company stand out in the crowded auto industry.

The “T” in the middle of the two overlapping ovals represents the company’s name. There is a strong relationship between the Toyota emblem and the Toyota brand because of this unique touch.

The two inner circles represent the merging of two vital elements: the client and the business. The broader oval around them stands for the world and the spread of civilization. This imagery represents Toyota’s dedication to its customers, company-wide harmony, and global expansion.

Toyota’s logo has the flexibility to adapt to a variety of situations. It has a wide range of possible uses, from advertisements to vehicles. Consistent branding and unique company identity are both bolstered by this flexibility.

3. Logo Can Help Incorporate Interactive Elements

In the era of interactive digital experiences, incorporating interactive elements into your logo can effectively engage your audience. The possibilities are endless, from animated logos on your website or social media profiles to logos reminding customers of a famous story, perhaps related to how the small business originated.

Interactive logos can create a memorable and immersive experience for your customers, making your brand more memorable and strengthening their emotional connection with your business. Interactive logos offer important opportunities to communicate with your audience and attract them to your brand.

Utilizing engaging logos in your marketing campaigns has the extra benefit of giving consumers a chance to engage with your logo and fully comprehend the significance of your design. You must understand a few fundamental concepts to design an interactive logo.

Interactive logos are a powerful visual narrative tool. By including interactive logos in your design and branding endeavors, you can assist your clients in telling a story.

4. Logo Drives Innovation and Creativity

Designing a logo requires a blend of innovation and creativity. It’s an opportunity for you to think outside the box and create something unique that captures the essence of your small business. The logo design process can also inspire innovation and creativity within your team. It encourages small business owners to promote their brands, values, and its target audience.

A logo has the power to drive innovation and creativity by serving as a visual representation of a brand’s values, purpose, and identity. Creative small business logos can inspire and motivate employees and consumers to think outside the box and push boundaries.

Employees can look at the logo and be reminded of its mission, encouraging them to develop new ideas and solutions that align with the brand’s vision. The logo is a constant visual cue, reinforcing the brand’s identity and inspiring individuals to think creatively to stay relevant and unique in a competitive market.

A logo that evokes curiosity or intrigue can spark conversations and create an emotional connection with the audience. This engagement encourages consumers to interact with the brand and explore its products or services, often leading to new ideas, collaborations, and innovative solutions.

Consider the brand of the renowned automobile maker Audi. The company emphasizes ‘advancement through technologies.’ The aluminum hue of the rings in Audi’s logo symbolizes the cutting-edge nature of the company. This sleek and contemporary style immediately grabs attention and conveys sophistication.

Conclusion

Small business logos are potent instruments for improving visual communication, bolstering digital marketing, promoting sustainability and CSR, allowing customization and interactivity, and stimulating originality and creativity.

A business’ capability to stand out in a crowded marketplace depends on its ability to design a logo that resonates with its target audience and successfully conveys its mission, values, products, and services to the consumer. Small businesses may build a strong brand identity and make meaningful connections with customers by tapping into the power of logos.

A small business logo is a significant investment to help you build a strong brand and grow your business. If you need a head start, plenty of resources are available to help you choose a trending logo design.

Online retail has expanded rapidly over the last two decades, going from obscurity to a multibillion-dollar sector. Millions of individuals all around the globe regularly make purchases from eCommerce retailers.

This means the eCommerce industry is a treasure box of opportunities. However, creating a successful brand identity is crucial for online stores to surpass the competition and generate sustainable revenue.

Branding establishes a unique and strong business identity for the product or service that a business offers. However, it’s more than just a beautiful, catchy company logo and involves many other elements that distinguish it from competitors.

Branding involves various tactics in promoting a brand, which include advertising, raising brand awareness over social media, customer service, and more. In addition to this, branding is a component of SEO optimization, which helps customers find a company/brand.

Why Store Branding Matters

Store branding is the method of creating a unique identity for your business. It involves constantly developing your store’s features, products, and services. Store branding matters because it helps customers understand the brand image and influences their opinion of the store’s product, value, services, and quality.

As branding helps customers to understand the business and its mission in a better way, they pay more attention to the business and prefer it over others. Strong branding will provide continuous satisfaction to regular consumers and draw the attention of new ones.

This article outlines several steps to develop strong branding for your online store.

7 Steps of a Successful Online Store Branding Strategy

Branding an online store is a method that uses various tools to create a brand image and promote it. It is also known as e-commerce or e-branding.

This could be done using a blog, a social website, or social media platforms. Let’s look at the seven ways that could help you step up your branding game.

Identify Your Target Market

When you talk about building a brand, it’s important to know who you are trying to reach and send a message to.

Finding the right target will help you in the following ways:

• Improves target approach
• Simplify content for your audience
• Helps analyze your competitors and their audience
• Helps to choose your design

Here are a few ways you can determine your target audience:

• Notice the type of people who are interested in your products. Segregate them by age, interests, and locality.
• Find out where the competition is putting their time and money by doing market research and analyzing industry trends for comparable items.
• Build “Personas,” or “Profiles,” of your ideal customers to learn more about their demographics, interests, and requirements.
• Identify the audience that is not your target.

Name Your Brand Fittingly

A great brand name is more than simply being cool and sounding nice. Just because you think it’s good does not make it right.

The fact that it says something about your business to the consumer base is what we need. Here are a few things that a good brand name possesses:

• It’s meaningful
• It’s distinctive
• It’s memorable
• It’s easy to spell, interpret, or say
• It’s legally available
• It can stay relevant with time

A lot of work is involved in creating a memorable brand name. A growing number of services are available to simplify the process for you. For example, you can get name suggestions from Shopify’s Business Name Generator, Wordoid, etc.

Develop a Brand Story

A brand story conveys the reason and motivation for starting a business. It encompasses the facts and emotions involved in building a business. The story expresses your drive to run a business that engages your targeted customers. Here are a few things that make up your brand story:

● Vision

Vision statements of a business include the goals and objectives of the mid-term and long-term growth of the business. It states the current and future goals, which helps motivate you and your employees to work better. Vision is also a future-oriented concept that helps create better strategies to expand the business.

● Mission/Goals

The mission is the purpose and intention of an ongoing business. It supports the vision of a business and drives the employees to reach certain goals. A mission statement states how to achieve the company’s vision. A strong mission of the company could be a good tool for marketing.

● Values

Values of the business stand for its ethics, philosophy, work pattern, and principles involved in running a business. A business without any values cannot have a smooth process and can’t keep the employees working towards the same goal in an organized way. Business values are an integral part of shaping a company’s culture and improving teamwork efficiency.

Outline Brand USPs

A unique selling proposition or USP is a specific benefit your business offers that makes you better or different from your competitors. Every company needs a USP product to connect with customers and make them believe why and what sets you apart. Your business’s USP does the following in the branding process:

• Adds brand value.
• Grabs attention to your company in the market.
• Develops an image for your brand.

For setting a USP for your brand, you must understand what competitors are providing and where they are lacking, in addition to what customers want. Your brand’s USP fills that gap and elevates your position in the market.

Establish Brand Voice

The company’s brand voice is your brand’s personality while communicating with the customers through marketing and branding. Your voice should be different and unique to stand out in the competitive market. It must run consistently as it reflects the company’s values and shows what you say and what you do.

The key to making a good brand voice is to make it relatable to the targeted audience. It could be motivational, friendly, or joyful.

Create a Visual Identity

A brand’s visual identity comprises of the logo, color palette, typography, and graphics. You can use these elements to convey your brand’s essence, who you are, and what you stand for.

● Logo

A logo is an effective way to portray your brand. You can use apps like Photoshop and Canva to create a logo. You can also hire a professional logo designer to do the work for you. This can be design studios or freelancers from platforms like Fiver and Upwork.

Your brand logo could be a design that represents the name of your brand, the initial(s) of the brand, or anything creative that stands out and conveys your brand message.

● Color palette

Color palette plays an important role while setting a logo and marketing your business, as it represents your brand. Use color psychology to choose shades that match your brand’s identity.

● Typography

Typography organizes typefaces and text for maximum readability, clarity, and aesthetic appeal. Choose fonts that go well with the visuals and are easy to read.

You should go for simple and easy fonts as they are easily remembered. Customers will likely forget the brand name if you go for complex typography.

● Graphics

Graphics have always played a big part in marketing, as seen by banners and media advertising; however, their significance has increased greatly due to the rise of social media.

A customer’s (or prospective customer’s) emotional connection to your brand may be strengthened via the strategic use of visuals. Catching up with the latest visual trends might be really good for branding your business.

Pick the best images representing your company ethos as a part of your strong branding game.

Create Brand Guidelines

Brand guidelines are an instruction manual that includes rules and standards that project how your brand should be represented. It describes the overall look of the brand and ensures that your brand is communicating correctly internally. It also helps audiences to recognize your brand on all platforms distinctively.

Here are some elements included in forming brand guidelines:

• Trademarked logo
• Consistent brand color
• Consistent fonts
• Developing visual identity
• Typography
• A solid brand mission
• A clear brand vision
• Easily defined values
• A good brand story

Parting thoughts

Now you know that branding is not just about creating a remarkable logo and getting a catchy tagline. It involves strategy and techniques that keep your customers engaged and loyal to your brand.

Use this article as a guidebook while creating a branding strategy for your business to set yourself apart from your competitors.

Stunning design obtained from a powerful graphic designing tool (Source: Unsplash)

As a graphic designer, having the right graphic design tools at your disposal can make all the difference in your work. Whether you are creating designs for print or digital media, a variety of software and online tools can help you create professional-looking designs in a fraction of the time it would take to do it manually.

In this blog, we will discuss some game-changing tools for graphic designers in 2023, including the best graphic designing software and tools for digital artists.

Valuable Graphic Design Tools for Designers In 2023

Graphic design is an essential element of marketing and branding. It helps businesses communicate their message to their audience in a visually appealing way. However, designing stunning graphics requires the right set of design software tools. Here are some of the best graphic design tools that can be valuable for you in 2023:

1. Adobe Creative Cloud

Crafting colorful graphics with Adobe Creative Cloud (Source: Adobe)

Among graphic design software, Adobe Creative Cloud is considered the industry standard. Its suite of tools includes popular software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and more. Each tool is designed to work seamlessly with one another, allowing for efficient workflows and stunning results.

One of its built-in tools, Photoshop, is a powerful photo editing software, while Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and is considered one of the best illustrator software in the graphic design market. The InDesign desktop publishing software allows you to create books, brochures, and magazines. While Adobe Creative Suite is not cheap, it is a worthwhile investment for anyone serious about graphic design.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides designers with tools for building and sharing online portfolios, working with a wide variety of fonts, and publishing their work on Behance. Photographers can use Adobe Photoshop’s built-in editing capabilities to adjust, remove, improve, and combine photos to meet specific needs, as well as to make posters, webpages, and banners. Brochures, magazines, reports, booklets, and flyers can all be created with InDesign, as well as animations, audio, video, and slideshows, making the tool useful to enterprises in the electronic media and printing industries.

Companies can use Adobe Creative Cloud to edit videos or movies and construct apps, games, and websites. To expedite review processes, users can make comments or annotate files with Adobe Acrobat DC after creating, converting, sharing, editing, archiving, or signing PDF documents.

Key Features:

Image editing, compositing, and painting with various tools and filters.

Pros:

It is easy to learn with a large community for support, constant updates and new features, and compatibility with other Adobe programs, and Professionals widely use it.

Compatible Platforms:

Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Web.

2. Canva

Canva’s dashboard comprises a multifunctional graphic design suite (Source: Canva)

Canva is one of the most popular online graphic design tools available, offering a wide range of features and templates for creating various types of visual content. It offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for non-designers to create real-looking graphics and is accessible through any web browser.

It is an excellent tool for small businesses and individuals looking to create social media graphics, marketing materials, presentations, and more. While Canva does offer a free version, its Pro subscription unlocks additional features, such as custom fonts, animations, and team collaboration.

Key Features:

It offers drag-and-drop design, collaboration tools, and social media integration. You can download and share your design with team access.

Pros:

With the freemium version of Canva available to the general public, it is easy to learn through a rich collection of resources and tutorials.

Compatible Platforms:

Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Web.

3. Sketch

The attractive user interface of Sketch graphic designing tool (Source: Sketch)

Sketch is a vector-based tool that allows designers to create scalable designs with precision and ease. It has a user-friendly interface and offers a range of design tools, including vector shapes, text tools, and image editing tools, as well as various plugins that extend its functionality.
Designers use Sketch to create digital designs for websites, mobile apps, and other digital products. It is known for its intuitive interface, speed, and ease of use and is popular among designers who work on Mac computers.
For optimal performance, use Sketch on a Mac with macOS Ventura or higher. This helps prevent slowdowns and the infamous spinning coloured wheel on Mac, ensuring the app runs smoothly and efficiently.

Key Features:

Uncluttered interface with guest collaboration. It also supports various mobile application templates, making it easy to create mobile interfaces.

Pros:

It is easy for beginners with excellent documentation, and there is strong community support in case you are stuck with something.

Compatible Platforms:

Mac

4. Procreate

Design spectacular graphics with Procreate (Source: Procreate)

iPad users can create digital paintings and illustrations using Procreate. It offers a wide range of brushes and tools that make it easy for artists to create stunning illustrations. Procreate brushes mimic traditional media, such as pencils, watercolors, and oil paints, allowing artists to create realistic artwork digitally.

The app’s interface is also highly customizable, allowing users to create brushes and import custom color palettes. Procreate requires a one-time payment and does not need a subscription.

Key Features:

Editing tools that support 200 customizable brushes, color management, finishing filters, and one-time purchase.

Pros:

It has an extensive tutorial library with an intuitive user interface. Procreate supports Apple Pencil, and we can import Photoshop brushes.

Compatible Platforms:

iPad

5. Figma

Bringing your ideas to life with Figma (Source: https://www.figma.com/)

Figma is one of the best online design tools for User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI). It is a cloud-based tool that allows designers to collaborate on designs, making it an excellent tool for team projects. It offers a range of features for designing user interfaces, including prototyping, animations, and more.

It can be used on Mac and Windows. It offers a range of integrations with other tools, such as Slack, Trello, and Jira, making it easy to incorporate into your workflow. Users on Figma can also choose from various pricing options, including a free plan. A significant advantage of Figma is its flexibility.

Key Features:

It is a collection of creative tools to enhance your work with different fonts, shapes, and colors. It gives a lot of latitude for small teams with free drafts and unlimited cloud storage.

Pros:

Excellent features in pricing plans, cross-platform support in free-tier, and private plugins at an organization-level plan.

Compatible Platforms:

Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS

6. Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer brings an engaging design experience (Source: Affinity Designer)

Affinity Designer is a vector graphics editor with features similar to Adobe Illustrator. It includes a range of tools for creating illustrations, logos, and other graphics, as well as a range of advanced features for professional designers.

Affinity Designer also includes various features for working with typography, including full OpenType support, text styles, and a range of vector-based text effects. One of the main features of Affinity Designer is its ability to handle both vector and raster graphics, allowing users to create a wide range of designs and artwork.

Key Features:

Color management, time-saving tools, real-time changes, and one-time purchases are the key features of Affinity Designer.

Pros:

It provides unlimited artboards with less resource usage. With excellent customer support, they also have Affordable pricing plans.

Compatible Platforms:

Windows, Mac, iPad.

7. Corel Vector

Formerly called, Gravit Designer, Corel Vector is a vector graphics software developed by Corel Corporation. It is a vector-based tool that allows users to create designs, graphics, and illustrations using various tools and features. Gravit Designer has a user-friendly interface and offers a range of design tools, including pen, shape, line, and text tools, as well as various effects and filters.

Gravit Designer is available as both a desktop application and a web-based tool, and it supports multiple file formats, including SVG, PDF, JPG, and PNG. Designers, illustrators, and artists use it for various projects, including logos, website design, social media graphics, and print materials.

Key Features:

Intuitive and simple to use

It’s simple to get started thanks to the user-friendly interface, the available themes, and the thousands of images, fonts, and other graphics.

Reachable from any location

Use it on all your favorite gadgets that support touch input, knowing that your creations are always backed up, synced, and accessible in the cloud.

Let Your Imagination Run Wild

Use potent tools for vector editing, designing multi-page layouts, writing and typography, applying non-destructive filters and effects, and much more.

Pros:

It has advanced vector editing with cross-platform support. It supports many file formats and is more affordable than other graphic design tools.

Compatible Platforms:

Windows, Mac, iPad.

Our Recommendation

The graphic design tools we have discussed offer many features and functionalities to help you create stunning designs this year. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional, these tools can help you convert your artistic ideas into breathtaking designs.
We have given you a head start to browse and select one or more of these graphic design tools to kickstart your design journey in 2023. Choose the tool that suits your needs, and be ready to mesmerize your artistic audience!

QR codes are short for something known as a “quick response” codes. This is basically a square shaped box that consists of various black and white symbols. Many people use them to scan stuff while utilizing the services of a smart device such as a smartphone to learn more about the item they have scanned.

As a general rule many, if not most of these little encrypted squares located discreetly on containers can potentially hold various links, event details, coupons, and other relevant information that the QR user may want to see or even to want to save on their device for future reference purposes.

When it comes to the creation of custom QR code with a logo, it is really not that difficult, to begin with. All you have to do is to follow a series of steps: These steps are as follows:

Step 1: You have to select a specific QR code generator

There are literally tons and ton of Quick Reference code generators available today. However, some of the better ones usually give you multiple entirely varied options for using the QR code itself. Apart from that, they also help to solve various compatibility issues with many if not most mobile QR code reading capable apps.

Step 2: You have to choose the most relevant reader for the type of content that you aim to promote

Let’ us select a popular QR code generator so that you would be able to generate your free qr code with logo. For this purpose, we will use the very popular qr-code-generator.com. This generator is used by many professionals all over the world, and it will help you to make your own QR code with logo.

First, you will have to select precisely which type of content that you would want in your QR code so that it will be visible to the person who scans the same.

Step 3: You should try and enter your data in the specific form in which it appears

Once you select that very specific type of QR content that you are interested in promoting with the help of your custom QR code with logo, a field or form will then appear in the space where
you are supposed to enter the relevant information so that it can correspond with your campaign.

If you want your QR code logo to save the contact information it has been provided, then you can even set specific fields where you can enter your subject line, email address, and any associated message by default.

Step 4: You might consider downloading something known as dynamic QR code

If you are really interested in trying to make a QR code with logo, then you should opt for a dynamic QR code with logo. One unfortunate drawback of making a QR code is that it is not possible to edit the data or information it contains once the code has been printed. However, with the invention of dynamic QR codes, it is now entirely possible to easily edit this data.

If you are using the right QR code generator you will be able to print a dynamic QR code, then scan it, and finally pull out an editable form. You will easily be able to modify the information your visitors will receive whenever they scan that specific QR code for themselves.

Step 5. Customizing your QR code logo

This is actually the really fun part of creating the perfect QR code. That is the customizing of the design of the code as per your own brand and logo. In fact, if you really want your QR code to look just like your logo, then you should definitely go for it! In fact, it is also entirely possible to reflect your online ecommerce website design scheme with the help of your dynamic QR code.

However, it is pertinent to note that not every QR code maker is built alike. And many of the free ones do not offer such a design option. If you really want to create a QR code with logo, then you have to check out all the different options that are currently available in the QR code generation industry.

However, the more options you generate when you want to create QR code with logo, the more difficult it becomes for the unit to pick up the code. So be careful of what you want.

Step 6: You should really test your QR code to make good and sure that it works

Sometimes a custom QR code with logo is quite difficult for many different mobile apps to “read,” properly enough. It that is the case, all your hard work will go to waste. This is why you should not forget to check and see if your QR code reads correctly or not. Make sure to try out multiple readers here.

Step 7: Track and execute a detailed performance analysis

Here you will have to make it a part of your whole marketing campaign plan. This is why you have to create and distribute collateral while using your new QR codes to see if the campaign is actually working.

Conclusion

The above steps if followed properly enough can easily help you to not just make your own QR code with logo, but also ensure that this code is up and running and easily scannable for the target audience that you have selected.