Internet For Real People
This morning, because a client had to let their tech person go, I spent three hours changing all their passwords. Email passwords. Web hosting account logins. Database logins for various WordPress sites. It’s the tech equivalent of changing the locks. In one case, we had to create a new Web hosting account and move...
By now, we all know that static Web sites are boring, right? (Right?) And that search engines prefer sites that are updated more frequently. But all those content changes don’t just write themselves. So… how do you do it? How do you get your site updated more often, and with what? First step: take...
When I start an Information Architecture or User Experience project, there are some fundamental questions I ask myself (and the client). Getting good answers is crucial to moving forward. Who’s the primary audience? What’s the business goal (…or goals, in priority order)? What is currently working? What is not working (and why)? What is...
For my clients, I do a lot of little stuff for free. Sometimes the client notices, sometimes they don’t. For example, I was reviewing the old Web site for a new client today, and I noticed that the folks who built their old site never put in a “favicon.” (That’s the little icon that...
In the past few months, I’ve been working a lot in Joomla and WordPress content management systems for various clients. I’m not quite ready to call myself an expert (yet), but it’s getting to be that way. Recently, a couple of my clients have either a) asked me to convert their current sites to...
In my work as a consultant, it’s important for me to adjust to the speed of the client. If I go too fast, problems appear. Sometimes I lose them in concepts that seem pretty basic to me, but are new to them. Then later, I have to back up and go over the concepts...
Your Home page is the most important page of your Web site, and not just because it’s by far the most visited. It’s where first impressions are formed (the oft-quoted “where am I and what can I do here?“). It must highlight your business goals, address customer needs, be interesting, have SEO content, and...
Last night after hours I get a message from a client: “Hey, my domain name is expiring tomorrow. Can you take care of that for me? Thanks.” Umm, thanks indeed. Thanks for missing the half-dozen or so messages that you’ve already received in the past month telling you that your domain is expiring soon....
Creating your first Web site is easy — get the hosting, create the site, test it… and when you’re ready, start promoting the site. (Hah! Easy…) But once you have a Web site, how do you create a new one? People are (hopefully) visiting your current site — browsing pages, clicking on services, sending...
You’ve paid big bucks for your site — original artwork, professional photos, carefully written content. How do you keep someone else from stealing it? You don’t. If someone wants to grab your Web site content, images or HTML, they can find a way. Best you can hope for is to let them know that...