WordPress for Businesses
WordPress may have been released in 2003 as a blogging content management system (CMS) but it has grown up since. No longer is WordPress only for blogs. More than 60 million WordPress websites testify to its versatility. WordPress is helping businesses succeed including dog trainers, custom sign makers, branding agencies, and active gear retailers.Why is WordPress a good choice for a business website? Control and Ownership Control and ownership matter to business owners. Your products and services wouldn't be what they are without you. The same is true of your website. Large businesses may be able to afford a unique CMS (although even the BBC, Bloomberg, and Disney use WordPress) but small businesses usually opt for customizing a CMS already available. Most small businesses turn to WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or Weebly. Yet only one of these gives business owners robust control and ownership.WordPress is open source meaning that anyone can use it or modify it. You aren't beholden to the hosting solutions (and pricing tiers) of a single company. Choose virtually anyone to host your WordPress website and move it anytime. WordPress' open nature also means that it is easy for a developer to modify your website. You aren't stuck living within the walled garden of a single company. WordPress puts you in control.WordPress also takes your ownership of your data seriously. You own your business and you own your website. You should have complete control of your website's data. WordPress allows you to access (and export) your website's data anytime. So if you were ever to move your WordPress site (or leave WordPress behind) you can take your data with you. That isn't always true of other popular content…
Introduction to Structured Metadata
Your website should help search engines and social networks understand it. Your content is designed and written for your visitors. Typically website owners expect Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others to just understand that content and display it logically. That usually works. Search engine crawlers have become quite advanced and social networks can often just pull an image and a text snippet. But what if you could ensure which title, description, and image show on Google, Facebook, Twitter, and beyond? Well you can with structured metadata! Help search engines understand your website Structured metadata is important content but it isn't visible to your visitors. Metadata is content written specifically for search engines and social networks.Structured metadata can be used to inform search engines what title and description to use for a page, what your hours are, what your logo is, who wrote an article, what a recipe's content is, and more. Structured metadata can also be used to tell Facebook and Twitter what titles, descriptions, and images to use. With different metadata styles you can even force your pages to appear differently on different platforms.Metadata doesn't directly improve your search rankings. However, it does eliminate the element of chance in how your links display. Usually if you can define how your links appear you can increase your click through rate. You know, perhaps better than anyone else, what your audience is looking for. Make sure that Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others are displaying your site the way you want them to.Structured metadata is quickly transcending its once exclusive purpose as a search engine tool. If you send a link to an iPhone user they now see a preview of the webpage…
Weebly vs WordPress
So you are thinking of building a website (or having one built for you). You've heard of popular software like Weebly and WordPress. You know that you want to make changes to your site on your own after it is launched. Which do you choose (if either)? Here we pit Weebly vs WordPress so you can make the most informed decision. Content Management Systems Both Weebly and WordPress are Content Management Systems (CMSs). A CMS gives website developers, owners, and admins the ability to build, write, modify, and extend web content. Using a CMS means that you may not need to write any code to modify a page, publish a blog post, add a product, or change simple settings. Both Weebly and WordPress do these things and more. Weebly Weebly is one of the most popular drag-and-drop DIY web builder services. It has grown by leaps and bounds since 2007. Their (mostly) intuitive builder, simple pricing tiers, and one-stop-shop model has propelled their growth. According to Weebly, their software now powers more than 40 million sites. Weebly is proprietary software and is tightly controlled by the company. WordPress WordPress is still the king of content management systems. It powers more than 60 million sites including 35% of the top 10k sites on the web. WordPress powers such sites as TechCrunch, The New Yorker, BBC America, Bloomberg Professional, The Official Star Wars Blog, Variety, Sony Music, and MTV News. WordPress is open-source. Anyone can view the code, contribute to the project, or build onto the software. Weebly vs WordPress Let's put these two in the ring and see who emerges the victor. Theming and Styles Both WordPress and Weebly support themes.…
Sweet Dreams 4 Kids Daycare
Sweet Dreams 4 Kids Daycare in Owings Mills Maryland is an established local daycare with an outstanding reputation. Angela Jones-Coleman has over two decades of childcare experience and has maintained close relationships with the families she serves. Until recently Sweet Dreams 4 Kids Daycare did not have a dedicated home on the Web. Like many local businesses, Sweet Dreams 4 Kids relied upon word of mouth to sustain their business. Yet, a dedicated website increases trust and reputation and may help the daycare sustain their business and be more competitive. We provided the daycare with a simple yet functional website that could be expanded modularly. Sweet Dreams 4 Kids wanted a simple one page website to keep web-development costs down. They wanted to start small with the hopes of growing the site in the future. We designed their site to grow with their business - whether they expand the site themselves through the WordPress admin panel or give us a call to add a feature or updated content. We designed the site from scratch using modern responsive design, bright fun colors, and simple yet interactive content. sweetdreams4kidsdaycare.com lists essential information, provides a means of contact, contains an interactive Google Map, and an interactive tool for sharing and viewing reviews. Rystedt Creative designed the first version of sweetdreams4kidsdaycare.com to grow with the daycare's needs. We may continue to work with Sweet Dreams 4 Kids Daycare to expand the site's contents as time goes on. We (or the daycare itself) may replace stock images with original images from the daycare and a slideshow or gallery, expand information, add a contact form and contact page, and a visual layout of the daycare. Rystedt…
Quick and Dirty Guide to Estimating Your Web-Development Costs
So you need a new website. How much should you budget? Should you expect to pay $1,000 or $10,000? Estimating your web-development costs can be difficult due to the range of firms and freelancers available to do the work. In our previous article we broke down the main factors that contribute to web-development cost including your time, knowledge, and money and whether you hire a firm, freelancer, or friend. Whether you pay low or high pricing is largely determined by what you are paying for and how experienced and knowledgable your developer is. [button id="c54861b7a5309c95ee6d9d602379f687" text="Read part 1 here" url="https://www.rystedtcreative.com/tech-talks/hire-a-web-developer-expected-cost/" target="_blank" alignment="center" alignment_mobile="default" image="" icon="ti-book" icon_alignment="left" style="1" size="medium" radius="0" border_size="2" shadow="simple" full="false" tale="none" margin="0px 0px 15px 0px" text_color="#ffffff" text_hover_color="" background_color="#1f78e6" background_hover_color="#6ba2e5" border_color="" border_hover_color="" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="29e04c67583cc78b1272d1b8436e36a0" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/button]Now that you know the main factors that contribute to a web-development hiring decision you need to research actual pricing. What products and services are you paying for? What are the price ranges for these items? Answering these questions with actual figures will get you an estimated web-development cost to budget for. Design Web design and development are often considered two different pieces of the web building process. Web design includes colors, typography, and layout. A web designer will often deliver a mockup of the site's design or at least a design direction for his client before actual development begins. Whether or not you are paying for web design is an important question to answer when determining how much you should budget for a new website. You generally have three design options available to you. You can pay for a predesigned template, a customized template design, or a custom and unique design. Predesigned…
Where’d All The People Go? Understanding Bounce Rates And What To Do About It
Does your website have what it takes to hook visitors in and get them to stick around for a while? Maybe you’ve considered this concept at length and are doing everything you can to make your website a virtual lounge where people like to come and just hang out. Or perhaps you haven’t really given it much thought. Regardless of which camp you fall into, it’s important as a site owner to understand why your customers come to your website and how to get them to stick around. Often, people come to a website and stick around only long enough to realize they just don’t want to be there. And of course, for web pros like us, there’s a nice fancy phrase to explain those visits: bounce rate. Your bounce rate is calculated by measuring the number of visitors that click onto your page - through whatever means you may attract them: web searches, social media links, backlinks on other sites, opened emails, etc. - and almost immediately click to exit. A high bounce rate, meaning that you have a bunch of visitors that only stick around to see next to nothing, is not good for your website health. Think about it: the customers that you’re going to convert into sales are the ones who stick around to see what you have to say/what products you have to offer. When people are sticking around for less time than the average yawn, they’re not seeing the content that you’ve developed to draw them in. And worse, they’re certainly not sticking around long enough to make a purchasing decision. We all want a lower bounce rate. Part of accomplishing this is to…
Website Self-Evaluation
Some organizations contact us because they are aware that their websites need improvement but they are unsure what exactly needs to be done. In order to assist these organizations in prioritizing their web-work we provide free website evaluations and initial consultations (contact us if you want to take advantage of these services). To complement our evaluations and consultations we have developed this website self-evaluation. Don't just take our word for it - evaluate your own website! We encourage you to download the PDF version of this document for use in your organization. Call a meeting of the decision makers and knowledgable leaders within your organization, load your website, and discuss the questions for the sections relevant to you. Purpose: Should our website primarily be for members/employees or non-members/customers? (This is your audience) What content is our audience looking for? Is that content easily available on our website? What content is our audience looking for that is either missing or difficult to find? Design: What is the atmosphere of our organization/business? Does our website’s design reflect that atmosphere? Why or why not? How could our website better reflect that atmosphere? Is our website easy to navigate? (For example: Are the contact and blog pages where you would expect in the menu?) Is our site mobile optimized? Engagement: What is the most natural way for our audience to contact us? Is that contact info available on every page? Is there a way to streamline this contact method? (For example: a contact form is better than an email address and a social media feed is better than a social media link.) How easy is it for website visitors to share…
Should I hire a web-developer? (And how much should I pay?)
This post is part one of a series on hiring a web-developer. Read part two, the Guide to Estimating Your Web-Development Costs, here. [button id="c54861b7a5309c95ee6d9d602379f687" text="Read part 2 here" url="https://www.rystedtcreative.com/tech-talks/guide-estimating-web-development-cost/" target="_blank" alignment="center" alignment_mobile="default" image="" icon="ti-book" icon_alignment="left" style="1" size="medium" radius="0" border_size="2" shadow="simple" full="false" tale="none" margin="0px 0px 15px 0px" text_color="#ffffff" text_hover_color="" background_color="#1f78e6" background_hover_color="#6ba2e5" border_color="" border_hover_color="" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" _fw_coder="aggressive" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="29e04c67583cc78b1272d1b8436e36a0"][/button]You're considering hiring a web-developer because you either want to launch a website or update your existing one. After determining what you want developed, updated, or fixed you must figure out how you will accomplish this and who will do the work. So, should you hire a web-developer? Let's consider the factors. Time, Knowledge, and Money Like any service, whether or not you need a web-developer is determined by a few factors. If you have plenty of time; knowledge of web-development, hosting, and search engine optimization; and some money you can do the work yourself. If you lack one or two of these factors you may need to hire someone. For example: You may have called a plumber after your pipes burst because you did not have the knowledge to fix the damage yourself. Or perhaps you merely lacked the time to get the work done. Either way, a knowledgable, skilled, and trustworthy plumber was part of the solution. If you had the knowledge, time, and money to do it yourself you would have. Whether or not to hire a web-developer is no different. Where your gap is in the Time, Knowledge, and Money Equation will determine whether or not hiring a web-developer is the right choice for you. I have time and knowledge but not much money If you have time on your…
Rocket Active Gear
"Joshua at Rystedt Creative was beyond helpful when we ran into technical issues with our website. His extensive Wordpress and Woocommerce knowledge helped to answer all of our web development questions. He was always available with a friendly demeanor and ready to talk us through our questions and what needed to be edited or changed on the website, and even showed us via screen-share the exact steps necessary. We greatly enjoyed working with Joshua and would recommend him to anyone!" - Mallory Olson, Rocket Active Gear and Elk Creek Designs Rystedt Creative recently assisted with the launch of rocketactivegear.com. Rocket Active Gear sells active gear such as camping, cycling, and hiking products through their WordPress powered store. Like Rystedt Creative, Rocket Active Gear is based in Maryland. Upon running into some roadblocks that they were unable to solve or were spending too much time attempting to puzzle out Rocket Active Gear asked Rystedt Creative to assist them in launching the site. Part of our time was spent researching possible causes of problems they were experiencing, providing recommendations for possible solutions, and demoing those solutions. We also assisted Rocket Active Gear by... Building a custom product category navigation menu The theme powered product category navigation they were attempting to use was not compatible with some of the other software powering the site and caused numerous bugs that complicated the navigation of the site. We disabled the offending navigation software, built a category navigation menu, implemented it, and thoroughly tested it. Now Rocket Active Gear is easy to navigate. Installing recommended solution to bundle a free gift with a customer's purchase Rocket Active Gear wanted an option to offer a free downloadable…
Teaching Very Young Children Programming Skills
Basic programming and logic skills are no longer a niche skillset. Most people who learn basic computer logic skills can put those skills to use in everyday circumstances. With basic programming and logic skills Microsoft Excel functions seem less like spreadsheet wizardry, troubleshooting your home machine becomes less aggravating, and tweaking some of the HTML for your blog isn't nearly so intimidating. Programming and logic skillsets also help develop organizational and problem solving skills. Yet most educational systems still aren't teaching such concepts to students. So we are starting to teach the concepts to our children early. There are some things we can begin teaching even our 2 year old daughter that will be invaluable later. Yet we don't want her glued to a screen. Her parents are on their computers most of the day - she doesn't need to be yet. So we are using books and toys to teach some simple concepts early without the use of actual computers. Logic skills and technical terms don't require a computer to teach. Logical Problem Solving For Christmas 2016 we bought our daughter the Fisher-Price Code-a-pillar. She was scared of it at first but has since come around to this adorable caterpillar with flashing lights. This toy has different segments each with its own color and command - such as "turn right" or "stop and sing a song". Each segment connects to the rest of the toy caterpillar through a USB port. Our children can rearrange the caterpillar's segments to make it do different things and navigate around different rooms and obstacles. The Code-a-pillar is about as simple as a programming toy can get. It doesn't teach if-then-else type logic but…