What Type of Websites Are There?

Most of the time, we put websites into two simple categories. The first type is what we call a static website. You might hear them referred to sometimes as a “brochure website” or a “beginner website.” Essentially, a static website is just that, “static.” Generally, you have some content that you need a website for, and you don’t expect that content to change, or if it does, it changes very rarely.

Website maintenance, changes, and upkeep on a static website fall firmly into the hands of your web designer or design studio because it’s technical. The exception to that rule is if you are a bit savvy with HTML, and you can go in and cowboy code a few edits when you need them. Most of the time, however, that is not you, and so you need a professional to help you make changes on the rare occasion your static content needs to be updated. An excellent way to think of static websites is, “set it and forget it.”

The other type of website is a bit more complex. It’s called a content management system or “CMS” for short.

What is a Content Management System?

A content management system is one of the few naming conventions in web design that is actually a good description of what this piece of software does. Content management systems are a type of software system that keeps track of the different content on your website.

It usually uses a database to store things like images on web pages, written text used to describe your brand and services, product images in your e-commerce system, and so forth. The value of this is that the database logically stores all of the website content so that it can be accessed when someone wants to visit your website.

Ultimately, a CMS can save you money in the long run by allowing you and your team to update, evolve, and change the site over time to reflect your growing brand.

Another significant benefit of a CMS is that it’s user-accessible. What we mean by that is that you, the website owner, can log in to that CMS and do a host of things to add to, edit, or maintain your website — something you generally cannot do with a static site unless you know how to write code.

Ultimately, a CMS can save you money in the long run by allowing you and your team to update, evolve, and change the site over time to reflect your growing brand. Handling these tasks in-house means you don’t need to go to a web designer every time you need a change made.

When Would I Need a CMS?

Determining website needs always comes down to a question of intent. If you intend to make regular changes and updates to the website, you should be looking at a CMS to support your team. Even to the most ardent holdout, it has become apparent that regularly updating and adding content to your website is essential.

This last year of the pandemic shutdown has shown us just how valuable a website is to the success of your business in terms of providing important information to our customers and clients, selling our products in an online space, booking appointments, and being reachable when in-person contact is limited. Your website, therefore, is the ever-present information center for your brand. As such, it should be kept current and updated on a regular basis.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is nothing more than one type of content management system. It started a simple piece of software used to write blog posts on, but over the years, it has continued to build an enterprise-level infrastructure and community support arm that makes it perfect for small, medium, and large-sized businesses.

The standard layout of the WordPress dashboard.

Their software’s focused planning and evolution make WordPress a popular “multi-tool” that can be used to build simple to very complex websites. As a result, WordPress is used by thousands of companies and powers millions of websites. An online article recently reported that there are approximately 46 million active WordPress websites, accounting for roughly 39.6% of the internet. That is a staggering number.

The focused planning and evolution of their software makes WordPress a popular “multi-tool” that can be used to build simple to very complex websites.

What does that mean for you and your website needs? Well, if you are considering a CMS to power your site, you probably want one that has a wide array of support (from the software company itself and the community at large). Both of those are major selling points of the WordPress system.

There are other CMS options out there that are really good. Applications like Joomla, Drupal, Sitecore, and others will also get you to where you want to be and will do it well. But there is a reason that WordPress has achieved what it has over the years.

What is the Difference Between WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix?

Due to their crazy marketing campaigns, most everyone is familiar with affordable website services such as Squarespace and Wix. The promise of gorgeous websites and a low barrier of entry for just a few dollars a month are attractive to the entrepreneur looking to keep costs down. And, they should be.

Both of the Wix and Squarespace platforms are solid choices. They do a great job of getting business owners up and running with a good-looking site, and like other CMS’ like WordPress, they allow you to edit and revise site content when you or your team need to. That equates to flexibility and saving a few shekels.

The areas we typically see issues in for those considering a monthly managed website service are primarily two-fold. The first is related to getting up and running at the beginning. There are hurdles, and you should go into it knowing it will be a learning experience.

One of the consistent issues we see is the difficulty users experience in making their website look as good as the marketing promised and then keeping it looking good over time. It doesn’t take much to say that you can have a beautiful website for $25 a month, but putting it into practice is different. What you are being sold is the promise of a push-button service, but getting a template to look how it does in the demo can be a challenge for the uninitiated. That’s because good design is still good design and requires some skill to execute meaningfully. There’s just no push-button for that.

What makes Squarespace and Wix so popular is the ease with which they can create a website, but many times you need more than what those platforms can provide.

As a result, we have a fair number of clients who pass on a website with us due to the upfront costs and decide to save a few dollars using Squarespace or Wix. Though, they often come back to us to help build out their website on the new platform because it is challenging to get it to look good.

The second area we consistently see clients having issues with on these platforms are hitting the ceiling and outgrowing the service over time. What makes Squarespace and Wix so popular is the ease with which they can create a website, but many times you need more than what those platforms can provide.

Deeper technical needs that arise over time, like complex form submissions, automatic subscription services, custom integrations, etc. require a bit more lifting power than Squarespace or Wix provide. So, these tasks become infinitely more challenging to create in a beginner eco-system. That is where a CMS like WordPress shines. Because of its enterprise capabilities and deep community support, there is not much that WordPress cannot implement.

So, once again, that idea of intent comes into play. When deciding on what you should use to power your website, it’s worth spending time thinking about what you need in year one might vs. years 2-10 and beyond. They are most likely radically different.

There is nothing wrong with using Squarespace or Wix to power your site. Heck, we’ll even build it for you. But considering a more advanced CMS like WordPress from the beginning is always a good idea. In the long run, it could save you time and money.

Aren’t WordPress Websites Expensive?

Good question. The most direct answer is that they can be. Some considerations fit into that calculation, however. Here are a few items that can affect the price:

• What is the size of the site?
• Does it need complex interactions like animation or video?
• Does the site need an e-commerce component?
• Does the website need to talk to other services or technologies?
• Does the site need to meet accessibility standards for people with disabilities?
• Does the site need to serve content in different languages?

During our initial discussions, we’re looking at these considerations and others to help determine the cost of the website.

The critical thing to remember, however, is that the website is an investment. We often ask people to imagine that they have a full-time salesperson that they’ve hired to create interest in their company, generate leads, and represent the company’s best intentions and services. We then ask what would that be worth to them? What would they have to pay that person for 40 hours a week to build their business? Now, what is it worth if they are doing it 24/7? That is your website.

Your website is not a passive thing that you “need to have.” If you see it that way, then you’re looking at it wrong. A competent website adds real value to your business. It’s providing awareness, knowledge, and connectivity to your potential and existing clients. That is valuable.

Why Should I Consider WordPress for My Business?

As you’ve probably gathered from this article, much of the decision-making process regarding websites comes down to intent. Should I have a static site or a CMS? If I need a CMS, should I use a beginner platform like Wix or Squarespace or invest in a more robust service like Joomla, WordPress, or Drupal? In the end, it comes down to what you need to do with that site in the long run and what is the best, most flexible solution for your business.

WordPress is a solid choice if you need a more robust site because you are selling products, or you need to book appointments online, or you need a space where you can go from 10 pages to 50 or 100 pages in a year. Again, you want flexibility now and in the future for yourself and your team. WordPress is a robust option that lets you do many complex, technical things, but you don’t have to be a “techie” to manage and maintain it.

Which Way Should I Go?

Whichever direction you decide to go with your website, remember that much of what you do is about planning for the future. You want to pick a platform that will help you now, and that can grow with you in the foreseeable future.

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A better title for this article might be, “how GOOD web design can help your business” because there are just a lot of really rotten looking, and rotten performing websites out there. We all have our stories of poor experiences while moving around the web. Yet, when web design is done well it can put a business on the map giving them a visual boost (through a great looking site) amongst their clientele, help people complete the tasks they are there for and do it quickly because the site was designed with performance in mind.

What makes web design good is a multi-layered conversation. There are literally dozens of considerations and touch points that go into building beautiful, performant websites. Too many points to cover in the scope of this article. For our purposes here we’ll focus on some of the most important benefits and how they help your business.

Your Website is a Sales Tool

We have a lot of discussions with clients about budgets and the value of spending a few thousand to many thousands of dollars on a website design project. Helping people break free of seeing a website as just a thing that a business should have to seeing it as an investment in a sales person, a lead generation tool, and a brand platform can take some work. While Squarespace, Wix and other quick build platforms are a great resource for getting a site up fast and cheap, those very qualities also negatively impact the perception of web design.

Sure, you can get a site that costs you $14.95 a month with free, beautiful themes; but without strategy guiding your content, design, user flows, and the myriad of other factors that go into good web design there is no reason to expect that site to move the needle.

The analogy we often put forth to potential clients is to think of a website as a sales person for a company. If they were to hire a full time sales person to grow a business, what would they expect to have to pay them per year to retain their services? How much more investment would there be in training that sales person to adequately discuss and promote the company’s products? Now, would they see that time and money spent as an investment?

Investing in a website is like hiring a sales person—one that is working for the company 24 hours a day. A sales person that is always loyal, always ready to help engage new clients and develop new business. Good web design is the catalyst that helps grow businesses. The old adage, “you get what you pay for” is a truism in the field of web design. Sure, you can get a site that costs you $14.95 a month with free, beautiful themes; but without strategy guiding your content, design, user flows, and the myriad of other factors that go into good web design there is no reason to expect that site to move the needle.

Good Web Design is Beautiful

There are a lot of unattractive/ugly websites out there. Visual design, though, can be every bit as important as the speed at which web pages load. The California based usability company, The Nielsen Normal Group, has done extensive studies on what they call the aesthetic-usability effect which refers to how people perceive an attractive website as being more functional/usable than an unattractive one. People tend to abandon or leave a website that is unattractive, having formed a poor first impression of the company. If they do stay they generally tend to take that website or company less seriously, or they perceive the company as being less professional. Both of these situations can cost businesses clients in the long term.

Good Web Design is Functional

Like a well designed building; a functional, well-structured website helps users navigate pages, easily locating the content they are looking for and helping people to make purchasing decisions regardless of where they are in the buying process.

A well defined information architecture is at the heart of good website structure. Coupling a strong underlying organization for the pages on the site and a strong strategy for the content on those pages reinforces the brand, provides a clear understanding of what services the company offers, and answers questions. Good architecture also reinforces the idea of user-centered design, which is the process web designers employ to help people do what they came to the website to do. When people can find what they are looking for and find it fast, they are more likely to pick up the phone or fill out a contact form.

Good Web Design is Performant

Having a good looking, well organized site is great, but if the site does not load quickly and perform in a way that fosters usability then nothing else that was done really matters. According to research done by Google in 2018, mobile users leave a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Each second longer that a site takes to load the probability of a bounce (users leaving that web page without going any further into the site) increases exponentially. And users leaving a website obviously equates to lost income.

There are many factors that contribute to site performance—each one working in concert with the other to provide a reliable, fast loading site. These are considerations made during the strategy and building of a quality website. High performing websites are designed to support businesses.

As mentioned at the start of this article, there are a lot of other factors that go into good web design, but these three over arching groups are some of the most important.

Good web design is a process. One that takes time and attention to detail. There are a myriad of factors that stand between average and stellar websites, and the differences between the two can be what makes a website just something a business does because it’s a requirement and something a business does to drive development.

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Why Website Maintenance Matters

Let’s face it. There are less than reputable people out there who would love nothing more than to gain access to a website and cause issues. Many times it’s just to say they did it, but there are others that use the opportunity to cause serious, permanent damage to a website. At the very least, they can leave malicious code on your web server designed to re-route unsuspecting clients and customers to locations other than your website.

Because websites many times rely on software from different vendors for certain functionality, they require periodic updates to stay current.

Most of these attacks of opportunity are possibile due to out of date software used to run and manage your site. Perhaps your web design studio showed you the value of having your website built on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or another framework. Because these CMS’ many times rely on software from different vendors for certain functionality, they require periodic updates to stay current. A lot of the time, CMS updates happen because a software vendor learns of a new way that hackers can exploit a website using their plug-in / software and the vendor releases an update to remove the vulnerability. That’s a good thing.

Moving away from the most obvious concern of exploitation, website maintenance can also provide protection through regular, whole site backups, uptime monitoring, and a variety of other small services that provide stability to your website.

What Type of Maintenance Services Are Available?

There are a variety of maintenance services that can be offered. Here are a few of the core services you can expect from a website maintenance program:

• Regular website updates
• Daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly website backups
• Uptime monitoring
• Website security scanning
• Regular website audits

Other services that can be provided but may not be part of a standard maintenance package (or are more infrequent package services) are:

• SSL setup / maintenance
• Audit and fix of broken links on site
• Page speed assessment and optimization
• Audit and fix broken images on site
• Meta data and schema data audits and fixes

How Much do Website Maintenance Services Cost?

That depends on the level of support services you’re looking to use on your website. Most companies will offer a series of services bundled in a few monthly packages that you can subscribe to. You pick the package that fits your budget and move forward accordingly.

Most companies will offer a series of services bundled in a few monthly packages that you can subscribe to.

Many studios and agencies have also started to include additional hours of service work that can be applied to helping in other areas beyond just the maintenance program. This is perfect for small businesses who need monthly changes to their website content. That can take the form of new website pages that need to be created, content edits, or other small monthly tasks. That is the type of monthly website maintenance / retainer package that we offer here at Shop. We’ve found that most companies have a variety of little tasks that they need help with in addition to monthly maintenance. By bundling a few hours or work time in with the maintenance duties, we are able to better serve our client’s website needs and the client feels like they are not receiving a bunch of hourly bills for a few monthly changes across their site.

Is the Money Worth What You Get?

As mentioned earlier, your website most likely represents one of your more dollar intensive business investments. If you think about it, you’re website is your frontline sales resource. It’s out there working for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What would you normally spend for an employee who could do that same level of service for you on a monthly basis?

Taking good care of your website through a regular series of maintenance services helps to keep your site up to date, operating smoothly, and selling your services. And if there is an issue, regular website maintenance puts in place the tools to quickly identify issues and get them resolved in a timely manner.

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What is HTTP?

HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. It’s a nice way of telling your browser how to handle the URL/site you are requesting. Your browser can handle quite a few different protocols, including, but not limited to; “HTTP”, “HTTPS”, “FTP”, and more.

What’s so special about a letter?

What is amazing, is the power that one letter has over how the world will view your website. The difference between “http://” and “https://” is that the “s” stands for secure. By secure we mean that any information that is passed between the browser and that website is encrypted, ensuring others cannot intercept that data as it’s being transmitted. This is great because if you are collecting any information from a user on your website, providing a layer of security makes them feel more secure about sending that information out through a form and out over the web. Without the “s”, your users are sending their information out into the world without any sort of protection or encryption. This all begs the question, “Who’s looking at your user’s info”?

Adding to Your Vocabulary

Getting the “s” requires purchasing what is called an “SSL” certificate, which stands for Secure Socket Layer. This certificate allows your browser and the server you are connected to to create a secure encrypted connection, allowing data to safely and securely pass back and forth. You may be asking how one gets one of those fancy “SSL” certificates. The answer, as with much on the web, is multi-faceted. There are a few web hosting providers out there that have been given the authority to “vouch” on your site’s behalf and say that your site is safe to create a secure connection with. So, getting an SSL certificate with them is just a matter of having monthly hosting services with that provider. Once installed, it will allow browsers to make that secure connection, and off you go, feeling more secure about everything web-related. If your hosting company does not provide the service then you have to go to a company that can issue the certificates and have a web designer or someone who understands the process setup the SSL certificate.

So, at this point you may be thinking, “I don’t collect any sensitive information, so I shouldn’t need one of those certificates, right?”. Well, in the past; yes, that would be true; however with the new changes that Google is implementing, the internet giant has started “shaming” non-secure sites by placing a “not secure” message next to the site address in the URL bar.

Then, in the future—Google is not saying exactly when yet—Chrome will flag all sites that don’t use TLS encryption as “Not secure” and also display a red triangle indicator, which Chrome already uses when users go to a dangerous website.

What Google is essentially saying is this: “Even though you aren’t collecting any information, your site should be secure, and if it isn’t secure we’re going to let everybody know that”. As if telling the world that your website isn’t secure wasn’t enough, Google is taking things one step further and listing HTTPS as a ranking factor for organic SEO.

Getting Your “S”

So, you’re starting to understand what SSL means and have decided that you need the power of the “s” for yourself. First off, good choice. Second now you have to figure out, “How do I get an S”?

There are a few ways to achieve this. The easiest is usually to contact your web host and have one created for you and installed on your site (beware as there is varying cost associated). Some providers even work with Let’s Encrypt, an SSL service which allows you to get a free certificate for your personal use. That tend to be the easy part.

Once you have an SSL Certificate, do you go to your site using the “HTTPS” and see the green lock? No, unfortunately just having the certificate is not enough to make a site secure. Some of the steps still required after getting your Certificate installed will be:

• Updating all links on your site to point to the “https://” version of each page ( your site isn’t secure unless all assets, images, files and scripts it uses are also utilizing the “HTTPS”. )
• Changing your site to force the “https://” protocol to load so it doesn’t still go to the “http://” version of the site
• Add any necessary redirects to go to the new secure URLs
• Update your domain in Google’s search console and resubmit your sitemap ( this will help greatly with SEO and maintaining your current traffic )

As you can see, there is quite a bit to do to update to the power of an “S”. However, it’s a process that should only need to be done once and then you are secure in the knowledge that your visitors are safe and will (metaphorically) thank you for having their security in mind.

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Two Camps: the Redesign vs. the Realign

Out With the Old: Design It and Don’t Touch It

It used to be that we would welcome the idea of the complete website redesign. It was a chance to start over from scratch—an opportunity to explore visual possibilities without restrictions. We would design from the ground up, hand the final site over to the client and let that site, and its content, largely sit static until it was time to redesign once again from the ground up a few years later.

In With the New: Create It, Refine It, and Grow It

In time we began to understand that we could do things a bit differently. The idea of developing an evolving content strategy, in which site content (pages and words) could grow and change over time, became increasingly popular. The additional ability to visually realign a site through a series of incremental changes meant that a client could greatly add to the value of their brand by shifting the visual message to meet the demands of his changing products and services. It all added up to less cost, less time, and more versatility. Yet, there are still times when a complete redesign becomes a preferable solution. But when?

Recognizing the Need for a Redesign

There are a few areas that we discuss with potential clients when deciding on whether a redesign is a necessity or whether we can make shifts through a process of realignment. Here are a few considerations:

Your Site’s Not Mobile Friendly

As you are well aware we live in a digitally diverse space these days. Mobile internet use has far exceeded standard pc usage over the last few years, making it essential to be able to share a website on a variety of mobile devices. That has put the onus on businesses to face a redesign in order to keep their site viewable and usable to their customers and clients. Modern design principles allow us to create a site using responsive technologies that re-conform a website for presentation on all major digital devices.

When to redesign your website remains one of the top questions we field from potential clients. Here are a few of the areas we cover on that subject.

You Can’t Remember the Last Time You Updated

Chances are that if you can’t remember the last time you redesigned the company site it’s probably long overdue. Technologies change, and they change fast. If you are sitting on a site that has not had any major updates in the last decade then it’s really time to consider a revamp. Chances are that a fresh new site will greatly increase the usability and user experience you are providing your customers and clients.

You Went the DIY Way

Many of the business owners we talk to decided to go their own way and build a website on their own. The desire, which is understandable, is to save some money by doing the heavy lifting. Design is an investment, and a website can represent a significant monetary investment. What most people find, however, is that there is a reason why businesses engage a design professional—design is hard. Getting the various facets—visual and useable just right takes some training and the DIY method leaves you with something that can be visually disappointing and a hinderance to your brand.

Your Brand, Services, or Product Have Grown, but Your Website Has Not

A brand is an evolving thing. Your company is not static. It moves, expands, contracts, and changes direction. Your web presence should follow suit. It is one of your most important brand assets. As such it deserves just as much attention as you would give to your business cards, letterhead or that dated print brochure.

Your Traffic is Dwindling

One of the by-products of having not updated a website in awhile is that traffic numbers can begin to stagnate. There are several reasons why something like this could happen, but chances are the reasons won’t be apparent without a little help. Over the past few years much has changed in how Google and the other search engines interpret sites that are not built using modern techniques. One of the big ones is having a site that’s not mobile friendly. As we continue our migration to mobile devices, search engines will give less authority to sites that are not viewable on mobile devices—viewing them as increasingly irrelevant.

What is Your Gut Feeling?

This one fits soundly into the “fuzzy” or “gray” category. You might have just reached a point where you feel it is time to mix things up. This is a strong indication that it’s time to talk to a design firm.

Time to Talk Turkey?

So, there you have it. A few (of the many) reasons you might consider it time to redesign your company’s website. Whatever your decision is it’s worth taking the time to engage a design firm to talk about options. Most will be wiling to discuss the options with you during a short meeting.

The thing to remember is that your website is (or should be) one of the most valuable members of your company. It’s out there 24 hours a day performing a thankless job none of us would really want to take on. As a member of your team have you given it the tools it really needs to do its job?

The post When to Redesign Your Website appeared first on shop.

At the time of the first incarnation of the site gradients and heavy textures were in. It was considered good practice to utilize interface elements that mimicked the tactile nature of the real world and everyone was immersed in folding edges, digitally replicated tape, ribbons, and other practices that are now surely considered nefarious practice–or at the very least, good ol’ fashioned skullduggery.

Being designers, fine artists and writers, we embraced this ideal at the time with all the un-abashed love we could muster. It was a texture fest revealing the intersection of handmade and technical work that we were are interested in doing. Our architecture at the time was crude by what I perceive our standards to be now, but again, it was modeled according to the times. It was our first site, and we loved it dearly–warts and all.

What I’ve learned during the process of crafting two versions of our studio’s site is that designing for ourselves is hard. Much of the determination, clear thinking and solid strategy that we employ in all of our client work comes much harder when we are the focus of the project. But it stands to reason. We all tend to raise the scrutiny level when we place ourselves under the microscope. We want the best, but it seems we have to drag ourselves to it kicking and screaming.

Designing for the web is hard. I’m the first to admit it. To practice as an interactive designer during this time is both exciting and rewarding. It is also confusing and divergent. The amount of technology and technique that we are required to understand and keep up on is tremendous. It’s also growing daily. And that creates a self-imposed level of pressure to reflect the bleeding edge of modern practice in the site that represents the work we do. Drawing that line in the sand proved to be one of our major sticking points. In the end it required us to change the way we think about website design.

Designing for the web is hard. I’m the first to admit it.

We’ve tried to embrace the idea of a truly fluid web and have adopted an iterative, evolutionary approach with this site. We have come to view this site as an ongoing project. We launched with our minimally viable project (to put it in agile terms), and we are building on to it brick by brick. Once we finish, we will re-assess and begin to set in on a series of constant changes allowing the site to evolve. We view this collection of code, pages, images and content as a member of our team, and as such, it needs to experience consistent change just as we do in order to reach its our full potential.

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