It’s been about four years now that we’ve been working exclusively in WordPress when building websites for clients. We switched over to it as a test with some websites that needed the ability to make content updates on a regular basis, then found it to be so much more resourceful than how we were building our regular HTML websites. And now WordPress sites take up about 26% of websites built on the internet. Pretty cool right?!
For those of you using WordPress though will want to make sure you’re always using the latest version of the platform. There are a few quick reasons why:
New Functions and Features – With the version updates usually brings new functionality that makes the commonly used tools and options even easier for content creators. Image galleries are easier than ever before, content formatting is better, and so are the themes.
Security and Patches – Typically you’ll see these in the incremental updates to the versions, but these are always important to pay attention to. Because WordPress is open sourced and community driven, input from users of the platform are actually taken into account when issues are found. Yes even the small little hiccups matter to the developers because they’re able to track and culminate all of that data and package fixes that are then pushed through these updates for all to enjoy.
What does this all mean? Don’t neglect your website. You may be one of the many owners that have several pending updates waiting for you to take action. Before you make those updates, be sure to read what is changing. It helps to understand this because there could be a reason why you shouldn’t update or possible test to see first if the updates will be compatible with your current theme, plugins, and custom settings.
You’ll want to check with your web consultant if you’re not sure, or you can always contact us and we can help with that too. Probably one of the more important things is to be sure and make a backup of your website prior to doing any updates. This could help in case something goes wrong or breaks, and then instead of troubleshooting, you can just restore a backup and then work out a plan for how to move forward.
This post is part of our Reluctant Social Media Manager series, support for those of us who want measurable social media results with the least amount of effort.
This year has been full of excitement for Design Theory, and this summer is no exception. Earlier this year we launched new services including Managed Hosting, Social Media Management, and the profitable sales tool Automated Virtual Chat.
We’re pleased to announce that starting this summer we will be providing Facebook Training Classes for the Orlando area. We’ve developed a curriculum that will take any Facebook Business Page manager from novice to expert. Our classes cover all of the basics – setting up and managing a Facebook Page, Facebook Best Practices, and Advertising. We’ll go into some advanced topics such as: Managing Ads, Campaign Optimization, Targeting and Insights.
In February I provided a talk on Facebook advertising at WordCamp Miami (you can watch it here) and the response was overwhelming. I was flooded with so many questions after the session, that I realized there is a need for classroom style Facebook training. There are tons of resources online to help you learn how to leverage Facebook for your business, but if you’re like me – there’s nothing like having someone sit with you and work on your own website.
Our classes are designed to be hands on, lab-style. Our students will bring their own machines and log into their own Facebook Pages with me right there in the room guiding them each step of the way. Our first classes will be held later this summer. Click here to join our waitlist and receive a discount on your first class.
Share this email with any entrepreneur you know who could use a little Facebook Management assistance.
Installing a new plugin for your WordPress site can be done in just a few minutes. You can either upload one from your computer that you’ve downloaded or search the WordPress repository for the plugin you’re looking to install directly to your website.
Follow the instructions in this video to install and activate your new plugin. If you have more questions or need help, be sure to add a comment below or visit our Contact page for support and we’d be happy to help.
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These are some sample photos from an action, portrait, and book cover shoot. Jarrod is an author as well as a speaker. He is a high energy guy and that made this shoot really fun to do. From jumping to rehearsing a moc keynote speech, we had probably over 500 frames that were all good but still had to narrow down to the best to use for promotional reasons. Check him out on his website for more.
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Last night my friends and I attended the vigil at the Dr. Phillips performing arts center in Downtown Orlando. While this mass shooting is a shocking and saddening event, seeing so many people gathering together with the hope that one day things like this won’t happen was encouraging. Below are some photos I captured from the event last night.
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Creating and designing a new website is an exciting project. Initially you’re thinking of all the possibilities and great ideas of what it will be. Content though, textual, isn’t always a fun thing to conceptualize. Is it a better practice to curate your content prior to designing your new website? Here are some points to argue both sides.
Explaining Your Product or Service is Verbally Easy
When we talk to new clients about their businesses, or why they decided to start a business, I notice them lean forward and eyes widen. This is because they’re enthusiastic about what they do and what they want to do in the world. Even if it’s a community based venture, the excitement of making products that make lives better, or a service that saves time and money is easy to talk about.
Now you’ll need to take those key talking points and make them sound good in sentences and slogans. Stringing together a story that flows correctly from left to right and not jumbled or out of order. In our discovery phase of our projects we like to take time to understand the vision of our client’s business ideas are. We need to understand it and grasp it for ourselves in order to create a website, photography, and business strategies that will not only compliment but also magnify these aspects. This can be daunting for most. Imagine stage fright, but for content on your website.
Solutions:
Hire a content or copywriter. They can take notes on your thoughts as you speak and translate the important key elements and combine engaging words that when it’s all put together makes a resonating impact on your readers and visitors.
Record your own conversations when you’re describing your trade. Then pick out the things you repeat often, or the things that you notice happen to resonate more with the people you’re talking to.
Create videos where you’re talking or describing your products and services. It’s no secret that videos are popular everywhere from SnapChat to YouTube and Facebook Live.
Web Site Pages to Navigation
Typically when creating a website you’re going to have a few common pages like; Home, About Us, Contact, and Services. (Side note, think about renaming those to something more creative. It will entice your visitors to click around more.) Now for the rest of your pages you’ll need to think about what makes sense and what order you’ll need to place them. For example, will it beneficial to have a small photo gallery on your home page? Maybe a three column display of products you have recent on sale under the main banner of your home page? Are you active in social media? And if so will it be best to showcase that in a predominant way?
You’ll also need to think about landing pages. Specific pages that talk about just one topic/product with an effective call to action and opt-in form. While these elements could be found on your home page, there are also many other things found on your home page that aren’t in total singularity. Hence why landing pages can be more effective at mainly selling a product or lead generation.
Page layouts are important to consider. You can go with the same set up for each page, but that’s not always something that works for every website. Some pages are worth being segmented into columns as a whole or various columns throughout the page.
Are sub-menus worth your visitors time and effort? For this you may need to do some split testing to understand what truly works, but it is valuable to consider when designing your pages.
Be creative and captivating with what is above the fold on each page of your website. This is the part of the page you see before scrolling down to see more content on the page you’re on. A lot of times what sits above the fold is crucial to the attention and staying power of your visitors. Pay attention to your bounce rate and see if what you’ve setup is working for you. Content also plays a big role in this too!
Solutions:
Consider creating a sitemap. You’re going to want to create one maybe on paper using a pencil to plan out how your pages and subpage structure will be. This flows right into navigation because depending on where your visitors come into your website, you’ll want to make sure they’re not lost as they get around but also easily identify how to get to the information they need and find what page it is on.
Check out your competitor websites and see what works for them as a user. Take notes on what you don’t like as well because that’s exactly where you’ll be able to improve on elements and layouts you felt are lacking.
A/B testing your layouts for various pages. Your visitors may stay on some pages more than others. See if there are similarities in the page layouts on the pages with more staying power over your other pages.
When Does It All Come Together?
For some of our clients it helps to see examples of page layouts before considering the content that will go on each page. And for others they have a general idea on structure but aren’t sure what pieces of content should go where and what is more important than others to be strategically displayed. We’re more of a proponent to knowing the base pages and names, then the content for each of those pages. Not all of the content usually fits or is necessarily going to work on the initial page(s). After the first round of designing, it becomes evident on what content is lacking and also what layouts are conducive for reading and navigation. We usually make those adjustments and sometimes add filler text or graphics to then bring back to our editors/copywriters to then create more elements to better balance each page.
This is our process and view on how we do things in short. What do you do differently? Let us know in the comments below!
