Breakdown of a website project – or, how much does a website cost?
A perennial question: how much does a website cost? More than you think? Less than you think? I don’t know the answer … how much money do you have? So, perhaps a better way into the conversation around budget and investment is to understand where your money goes. If you have £5,000 to spend, or...
Journey to Sustainable Web Development
Longest journeys / small steps etc. … mighty oaks / acorns … you get the picture. Last week we took the first steps to becoming a sustainable agency. We’ve started with the easy stuff – because, y’know, it’s easier. We’ve partnered with OneTreePlanted to plant trees every month to help counter the impact of hosting...
The best WordPress plugins for small businesses
Okay … that is about as ‘click-baity’ as I can make a title. Sorry. What I actually mean is this: there are plugins that I always like to use on client projects, and I have a few guidelines for evaluating them that might be useful to share. It’s just not as catchy a title. For...
Rules vs. Decisions – streamlining thought processes
Just a quick tip – a reminder for myself as much as anything else. It’s already the 2nd week of January – only 50 more full ones this year, and I’m looking at ways to reduce work-fatigue, be more focused (blah blah blah) … really, just trying to squeeze a bit more concentration out of...
There is no such thing as an impulse purchase
I’m just going to say it: there’s no such thing as an impulse purchase*. It’s just a story we tell ourselves … an excuse given in case a purchase doesn’t work out. The idea that we just walk into a store, or discover a service we like the sound of, and just buy it. That’s...
Is your website due for an MOT? (Yes. Yes it is.)
Did you know that for every half second of load time on your website, conversion rates drop by 4.45%? I mean … I didn’t know until I started googling for scary statistics. But there we are. What I do know is that after a website goes live, it is rare for a client to take...
Who owns your domain name? Domain name ownership … nothing but headaches!
In (nearly) twenty years of working with clients and their web projects I have seen my fair share of poor website and business decisions. But the one that is most guaranteed to bring tears, delays, headaches, and agita is the thorny subject of domain name ownership. (I know what you’re thinking: surely it’s websites where...
The demands of content creation for new website owners
One of the toughest challenges for a client to get to grips with, when they have a new website, is the demands of content creation for it. I know, I have the same problems – I’ve not always been good at writing regularly. I have not made it a priority and it gets left undone....
Hiring a web design agency does not have to be hard. Here’s how.
Hiring a web design agency can be a process fraught with risk and no little tension. Here’s how it normally goes: a company has decided internally that they need a new website. The reasons vary but might include ‘we need to better show off a new product offering’, ‘it just looks out of date’, ‘we...
How secure is your WordPress site?
Sometimes, WordPress gets a bad rap. Someone has heard that it’s not secure. A local business had its site taken over by hackers. Isn’t it the most hacked system in the world? WordPress security often feels like the topic du jour. And you know what? It’s likely all true… but not for the reasons you...