Many of my website design prospects frequently ask me “what they can expect” when we discuss converting their static website into a dynamic WordPress website. I answer them honestly by saying it depends on a lot of variables because no two projects are exactly alike. While this answer is not a concrete one, it is the best one I can give because I don’t yet know the variables. What I can tell them is that there are great examples of success when the process goes right. Does SEO Really ... Read More
Website Development Articles and Posts
Website development articles and blog posts covering all aspects of WordPress website design for small to mid-market companies.
Stand Back! The Geeks Are Coming
Last night I met with a business partner named Scott. Scott is an engineer and his engineering brain loves SEO. I’ve been teaching SEO 101 while we build Scott’s website. Last night as we moved from SEO 101 to SEO 201, Scott couldn’t understand why I didn’t do this with every client. The truth be told, 99% of my clients don’t care. They pay me to make sure their website and SEO are taken care of and they don’t want to worry about it. We All Make Mistakes Very few clients have Scott’s ... Read More
Why DIY Websites Are Many Times a Horrible Mistake
So you’ve finally made the decision – you need a new website. If that’s the case, you’re probably trying to figure out if you should hire a professional or try to go it alone. If you’re a small business or a tech savvy marketer, you’ve considered doing it yourself or maybe even decided to take the DIY website route. For some, this can be a great decision. For others – aka most – this can be a disaster. The DIY Website Designer Lately I’ve received a lot of emails and calls from people who ... Read More
Should You Ditch Your Website & Developer?
When I first started my business, I thought projects would be clearly defined as web design or SEO. Oh was I wrong. Projects, like clients, come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. What may start out as a simple SEO project may lead into a full-blown website development. And this migration isn’t because I’m pushing web design on clients, it’s because the client has significant limitations with their existing website. Since I run into this often, I'm sure the average website owner does ... Read More
Sticks and Stones Break My Bones, Wireframes Excite Me
Over the years I’ve matured in my web design process. I now have a graphic artist who creates really great design comps and a few WordPress gurus who whip these creations into the Genesis framework from StudioPress. I truly believe I have some of the best people around and I am a lucky girl. Yes I realize that sounds like fluff, but in my geeky WordPress world all that makes me happy. It means I get to focus on clients, strategy, SEO, and I get to create wireframes. Website wireframes are ... Read More
Converting Visitors is About Connecting the Website Dots
If you’ve been following my blog and you're a regular reader of my posts, you may have noticed in many recent posts we’ve been walking through my website design process. It has over 90 lines of to do items for my team and my clients. Yep I said 90 with a nine and a zero. That’s a lot, but there is a reason for it. I’m methodical in nature and my web design process is too. There are a lot of dots to connect and things to worry about when you launch a new website. That doesn't mean it has to ... Read More
Why You Should Treat Your Website Like the Family Dog
Friday afternoon I had a call with a client I built a website for back in March. Before I realized it, I was comparing their website to the family dog. Not a typical analogy, but it worked in the situation and the client understood the point I was trying to make. Who’s Taking Care of Fido? In my house I take care of the family dog. I’m not a big fan of our English Lab, but I’m still the one who makes sure he is fed, watered, and let in and out four hundred times a day. I am the caregiver even ... Read More
Top Ten Signs You Need a New Website
Each week I speak with companies who need a new website and complain to me about their current website. I’m a frank person and once someone knows this, they frequently just start saying the first thing that comes to their head. Some of the comments are so funny and painfully accurate, they have me laughing out loud and whipping the tears off my face. While that is good for me, it is not for the company who owns the website. The below list of top reasons for a website redesign is a humorous ... Read More
SEO Can’t Help a Website That Sucks
Each week I speak with potential SEO clients who ask me to “make their phone ring”. It is an honorable request, but I struggle with this because in many cases, SEO alone can’t solve their problems. SEO can help, but once the website visitor arrives to their website, they’ll run screaming for the hills. I’m not a website snob and I value the small business owner and his desire to bring sales in through the internet. I think internet marketing is critical for many small businesses, because it ... Read More
Have a Seat Ms. Website Owner, It’s Time for Introspection
When a client signs a contract with me for a web design, the first thing I do is send them a three page questionnaire and request they answer as many questions as they deem appropriate. This questionnaire helps me get inside their heads and it helps me better understand their marketing objectives, the opinion of their existing website, and their overall view of internet marketing. I ask a lot of questions about the current and future state of their sales process and marketing programs. While ... Read More
If You Connect With Website Visitors They Will Convert
The Problem With Most Websites A lot of small business owners launch their website with the simple goal of using the site as an information portal and a mechanism to talk about their company. It is basic human nature to be egocentric. The problem with this methodology is that it generic. Simply talking about yourself isn’t a differentiator for your website, product, or service offering. It doesn’t compel your website visitor to take action. No matter what the search criteria is, a typical ... Read More
A Box for Every Website Visitor
I tend to compartmentalize things and people. I mentally place people in boxes and segment them out into groups like my nuclear family (husband and kids), my extended family, my neighbors, my best friend and so on. I’ve often referred to these groups as my “boxes” and I do not like them to intermingle or randomly change. These boxes structure my communication and they dictate how I interact with one individual versus another. For example, I know I can pretty much tell my best friend anything ... Read More
Fifteen Questions to Ask Your Future Website Designer
Recently my sister decided to launch a website and blog. With my encouragement she selected WordPress as her platform of choice and then set out to locate a WordPress consultant. Why didn’t she come to me you ask? Well honestly, I didn’t want to work with family and I could not begin to meet her list of needs. Sisterhood aside, we both knew we were not an ideal fit for each other. She wanted a cute blog with minimal website functionality and that isn’t my strength. I’m a B2B or B2C girl who ... Read More
Each Page of Your Website is Like a Handshake
Each page of your website is like a handshake. Really. To illustrate this statement, let me set the stage for you. You are manning your company’s booth at a trade show and a prospect wonders by and is within reach. This person looks at your booth, pauses, and then takes a brief moment to ask about your product or service offering. What do you say? Remember - you only have about one minute to make an impression and keep their interest. You have about the time it takes to shake someone’s ... Read More
When a Website Designer’s Good Intentions Go Bad
Today I am meeting with a client to review the design and build of his new website. Quite frankly I’m not looking forward to this meeting. I am the barrier of bad news. When I originally accepted this project, I could see Google had indexed about 1,000 pages within his domain. While it would take some time to migrate and optimize this many pages, I was up for the challenge. The goal is to give him a more SEO friendly site that he can maintain himself in WordPress. If that meant throwing ... Read More
WordPress is the Liberator of Growing Businesses
I have always been a fan of WordPress. Okay, let me rephrase that. Since I discovered WordPress, I have always been a great fan. Similar to other people, I was hesitant at first. I thought it was simply a blogging application with limited capabilities. I equated it to Google’s Blogger and thought it was solely used for bloggers and it was much to limited for a real corporate website. Thankfully, I was wrong. WordPress liberated me and it has liberated many website designers and business ... Read More
Gomez Launches Cool Gizmo for Website Developers
Gomez just released a cool gizmo that reviews a website and displays how it looks across various browsers. Why does this matter some may ask? A single website page can look differently across different browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox. In fact, different versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer can make the same website look different if it is not written to manage IE's quirks. Yes, the fact that web developers have to worry about this amazes me as much as it probably ... Read More
In Website Design, Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
When it comes designing websites, small businesses are many times victim to the old saying that states "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Unlike large corporations with large in-house website design and Internet marketing departments, small businesses are left to their own ill-equipped devices or left in the hands of an outsourced website design firm. It generally takes a third party to point out a website's physical and esthetic flaws. Sometimes it takes a few hundred of your dearest ... Read More
Do I Really Need a Website?
Unless you live in a cave and sell your products and services to other cave dwellers, you need a website. As my friend once said, "I have to have a website because everyone else has one." He is right. While he may not be the most technology focused person I know, he is a small business owner and he sells products and services to every day people. Since most of his B2C (business to consumer) prospects use the Internet to research their future purchases, the company must have a website for ... Read More
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