Flower pot websites may be well liked by the site owner and the owner’s immediate circle. But then when they contact me about getting more visitors to their site, or to say they are horrified by how the site looks on their iPhone, I’m the one to give them the bad news – you need to switch to a Dashboard enabled website software because your flower pot is wilting.

With WordPress, your site is future-proofed and won’t be wilting. The design (the Theme) is separate from the content (Page & Post text & images) and you can change the look and add new text anytime.

For my WordPress development pricing, I take into account that some of my clients have their own domains and hosting. Some may have an existing WordPress installation. Some may be advanced in that they know how to choose and install Plugin’s.

For that reason, I have set pricing for certain tasks such as Install and initial setup of WordPress on your domain, and Premium Theme search support & setup. I can do the parts you can’t or don’t have time to do. You will be busy gathering images and writing about your business or site topic.

An important part of the process of developer & client being ‘on the same page’ is to use examples of other websites to determine design direction and ‘feel’. However you will most likely NOT be getting a website exactly like an example we may look at, unless we engage in a custom design process.

When we look at example sites I do get a sense of the design direction that pleases you. But then there will be aspects of the sites which I may not care for because I know they are not particularly effective in attracting visitors.

While WordPress has some really beautifully structured Themes, I consider the promotional function of a website to be more important than the design. The rise of visits by phone & tablet, the requirements of maintaining an active social media presence, and continual testing and monitoring of results has made concentrating the majority of effort on the design aspect a poor return on investment. That’s why I’m a fan of Premium WordPress Themes. They can get a project to within 90% of a great looking responsive design out of the box.

Keep in mind when you go to your most visited sites what you are doing there. Are you a fan of web page background movies? Are you going to wait for 12 huge slides to slide across the home page? Are you even ON the home page? Chances are, if you clicked on a link on Facebook, you are on an interior page that is exactly what you EXPECTED to see. And if it’s not what you expected, you’re gone!

It’s important for the site owner to understand as much about WordPress (or any software powering their website) as they can. Having a developer make Posts, or small edits on your site is something that is typically cost effective only for larger organizations. Making a basic post on a WordPress site is a task that takes about 15 minutes to learn how to do.

There is no ‘set it up, and you’re done’ on the web. Your website will be the hub for your ongoing promotional efforts, but you’ll need to maintain a routine of creating posts on your site and social media or hire someone to do it for you. Once you establish an organic promotional routine, then it’s time to look at paid options. There is no substitute for this. Give the flower water to drink.

The post Is Your Website a Flower Pot? appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

A Responsive Redo

More and more visitors to your website are viewing the site on a phone or iPad sized screen.

While this can be an acceptable way to view older websites, and all the viewer needs to do is ‘squinch’ in or ‘swipe’ across to see all the text and images, Google is seeing a site that is NOT ‘ Responsive design.’

And Google has decided to actively punish non-responsive websites by downgrading them in their search listings. They offer a handy test so you can check your site out.

Google wants to list sites that are legible with no squinching and swiping!

Fortunately, you already have a WordPress site, and since the content and display are separate in WordPress, all you need to do to make your site responsive (and Google happy) is to switch to a Responsive Theme!

A new Responsive Theme for your website could be done in three different ways.

1. WordPress Themes have become such complex software that there is now a whole world of Responsive Premium Themes with great design & typography PLUS many options for personalizing a site as your own. I have a service called Premium Theme Support & Setup to help my clients discover, install & personalize these Themes. Premium Themes have a small (under $100) license cost & more importantly, a dedicated developer supporting the product. I now recommend this route.

2. Find a Free Responsive Theme and APPROXIMATE the design of the current site or switch to some new design you’d like to implement, using a free Theme’s more limited (compared to a Premium Theme) options & style settings palette.

3. Switch the site to an “off the shelf” Free Responsive Theme with even less options & style settings changes. (NOT RECOMMENDED – BRANDING DISASTER!)

Many sites may be using a completely custom designed WordPress Theme, built from scratch way, way back when a WordPress Theme consisted of maybe 12 files total. Now Themes can have hundreds of files powering all those cool functions.

These custom Themes, while they may be durable, have limited options for updating the code to keep up with the constant changes in hosting software, security, compatibility, or changes like responsiveness.

Bottom line is Google says to cut out all the squinching and swiping. And we must be responsive.

The post Google Says “No More Squinching & Swiping!” appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.