Category Archives for "Technique"

Using your Blog

A few Thursdays ago I posted about the site structure and the pages you need to start your website.  Today, I shall write about using your blog posts.

If you have a blog, you will find a page somewhere on the site that lists your blog posts.  Many themes default blog posts to the home page, but they don’t have to be there.

The blog adds posts to the list at the top, so the posts are older as you scroll down the post page.  If you click on the title of a post, you go to a new page with just that post and nothing else.  This page has a unique url, which means you can link directly to it.

Creating a post is similar to creating a page and if you are familiar with word processing, you should not have too much trouble.

However, you might object you do not want a blog.  You may have heard you should post every day and you really don’t want to take on all that work.

Do you need the blog for your business or project?  Your online presence is not what it would have been a few years ago.  Today, your site needs to be active and to be seen to be active.  A blog is one way of bringing activity to your site; I’ll write about others in future posts in this sequence.  If you choose to do something other than blogging, that’s fine but don’t use the work involved as a reason not to do it.  If you haven’t got the time, why be online at all?

So, how can you use your blog?  Blogs are personal records and there are some advantages to sharing  personal experience.  Equally, blogs can be for teaching and if you want to be taken seriously online, this is something you should consider.

Blog posts do not have to be learned in tone or terribly long.  A brief post that makes an informative point is all you need.  Posting regularly helps you become established online but it is not essential.

Some Ways to Use Your Blog

  • Simply, write about your business or specialty.  Be informative and offer your best information.  This will in time establish you as an expert in your subject area.
  • You can publicise events on your blog.  Set up a category called “Events”.  You can add that category to your navigation, so that “Events” appears in your main navigation bar.  For a new event, simply add the details to a post and add it to the “Events” category.  Visitors can see at a glance what is going on.  If you set up another category, “Archive”, you can add it as a drop-down under “Events” in your menu bar.  Simply move an expired event from “Events” to “Archive”.  Visitors can see what you’ve been doing.  You can of course add photos or videos to your archive.  This is neater than simply adding events to a page and easier to navigate.
  • Let’s say your website features several groups or you want to list partner organisations.  You can assign these to categories in a similar way to events.  In WordPress there are plug-ins that help you organise this type of information on the page.
  • You can set up your blog so that each new post is automatically communicated to your social media.  (More about social media later in this sequence.)  So, you can use your posts to publicise your website and your work.

So, blogs are one way of organising the information you want to share on your site.  Your designer / consultant can help you work out the best way to use your blog.

Have you any examples of creative ways of using blogs?

Adding Navigation to Your Website

The navigation available to you depends upon your chosen theme.  Most themes have primary navigation towards the top of the page or else in a sidebar.  Secondary navigation may be in drop-down menus, in a second menu that appears below the first when you select a page in the primary menu or elsewhere on the page, usually in a sidebar.  Once you’ve chosen your theme you don’t have to use all the available menus but it’s sometimes difficult to add more navigation options.

Some themes provide additional navigation, eg they showcase (usually 3) key pages on the home page.  If you have a few major issues, products or services, this may help visitors navigate the site.

Last time, I mentioned the type of wireframe that can show relationships between pages on your site, your designer uses it to plan your navigation.  You need to decide which pages are in primary and which in secondary navigation.

As your site grows, you can add to navigation, although if the site becomes very large you may have to re-think your site structure.  A designer or consultant will be able to help you do this.

Setting Up a Menu

If you click in “Appearance” in wp-admin and then on menus, you can see how to build and edit menus.  You can

  • create new menus
  • add and remove items from them and add or remove secondary or even tertiary items (you can go beyond this but really?)
  • assign menus to the various locations available in your theme.

Make sure the words in the tabs are clear both in terms of meaning and appearance.  Contrast should be good in the following modes.

  • Unvisited – the pages you are not on should all be in the same font, colour, etc and be easy to read.
  • Hover – the word should intensify in some way when the user hovers over it.  A good way is to reverse text and background, so black text on white background becomes white text on black background
  • Active – this was important when machines were slower but these days is rarely noticeable; a colour change appears when you click the link and before the new page comes up.
  • Visited – behaves in different ways.  Sometimes this colour change applies when you’re on the page, so that you can look at the navigation and tell where you are.  For links in the text, the colour change can persist so you can see which links you’ve visited.

You need to check all this out with your designer / consultant.  What additional aids to navigation do you like to see on a site?

Planning Your Pages

This is the sixth post in a sequence about working with your web consultant or designer to build your site.  Today we’ll have a look at the pages you need to post from the outset.

Normally, your designer will discuss this early in your site planning and so at this stage, you will already have a plan for the first site layout.  It is easy to change the layout with WordPress and so you are not stuck with the same page structure for all time.  But if you want to get a basic site online, you will need this early plan.

If you have not already done so, you need to map out the site pages.  You may consider the following, for your first site:

  • Home page – your chosen theme may decide your home page content.  So, its worth having an idea of the content for the home page before you choose the theme.
  • About page – WordPress provides a sample About page, so you need to decide whether you want to keep it and if so what you want to put on it.
  • You will have some pages that contain your site content.  Remember the rule is one topic per page.  Don’t overload pages with masses of information across a range of subjects.  You may have pages about resources, links, products, services, causes, etc.
  • Contact page may be helpful especially if you want to show a map or photographs.  If you have a small amount of contact information, you might put it in the footer.  Most people know to look there but it’s possible some visitors won’t scroll down to find it.

You can create a wireframe, showing the site structure.  This is a diagram showing how the pages relate to each other.  Some pages will be in submenus within your navigation.

If you plan pages in advance, you can work on the content whilst your designer sets up the site.  Your designer is likely to want to create placeholder pages so that s/he can set up the navigation.  You really don’t want empty pages.  Your designer could at this stage show you how to create pages and add in your content.  If you work alongside your designer you can ask for feedback as the site develops.

So, have I missed any common page types for an initial site?  I have omitted the page-types I’ve covered in the sequence about the hidden life of websites, as they are likely to be added later.

What to Put in Your Header

Once you’ve chosen your theme you can turn your attention to the site header.

There are two approaches to your header in WordPress.  A site title and tagline on a solid colour background, although it is possible to use a gradient if your designer understands CSS.

Or else you can install a Photoshop header image.  This goes over the header and so you can’t see the title and tagline, unless you add them to the image.

Remember the site theme will decide the size of the header image and so if you have an attractive idea you need to check it fits into the space the theme allows.

Choosing Your Title and Tagline

The site title will normally be the name of your organisation.  The tagline is useful because it is an opportunity to tell the visitor what the site is about.  To start with it reads “Just another WordPress site”.  To change it you go into Settings and General.  There you can change both the title and the tagline.

Normally you know the name of your organisation and so the title is straightforward.  It is worth giving some thought to a suitable tagline.

What can you say that will tell the right visitors they are in the right place?  Take a look at my tagline above.  What do you think?  What does it say to you?

Choose Your Site’s Theme

So, you’ve set up your content management system (cms).  I’m going to assume you’ve chosen WordPress but this post applies to any cms.  For WordPress you can view your site on  “www.domainname.com” (OK maybe not .com but you get the idea).  To log in to the site and visit behind the scenes, go to “www.domainname.com/wp-login.php” or click on the link on the page you see with the first url.

The real headache starts here.  Choosing a theme.  Why do you need a theme?  It determines the look of the site.  You can do anything with a basic theme if you understand html, css and php.  Your website designer will and if you pay them a small fortune they might be able to come up with something that exactly matches your requirements.

The chances are you can spend your money on better things and so you and your designer need to choose a theme.  Most people’s experience is they have a website with massive functionality and once they lay a theme on top, whilst the functionality is still there, it’s a bit like painting your entrance hall through the letter box.

Theme descriptions are often not brilliant and omit to tell you something really important which you discover only once you download the theme.  This is OK if it is a free theme but if you’ve paid for it, it can be frustrating.  Why pay for a premium theme?  Here are some reasons to consider it (they are usually not terrifically expensive):

  • They enable you to change more things than free themes allow.  Of course this is a matter of degree.  Some free themes  allow you to change more things than others and some premium themes can be really frustrating.
  • Apparently premium themes allow you more plug-ins.  I suspect this is a fairly marginal issue these days.
  • Some premium themes offer more security and help with seo.  I like the Genesis themes from StudioPress and usually recommend them to my clients.

If the look of the site is really important and funds are limited, you need a designer who knows something about themes.  If it’s not so crucial, choose one you like (or agree with your designer) and crack on with it.  Life is too short to mess about.

Can you recommend good WordPress themes?  Why do you like them?  What do you find most frustrating about theme descriptions?

Set Up Your Content Management System

Once you have chosen your domain name, the next step is to set up your content management system (cms).  Your web designer or consultant may have a cms they favour.  You need to check out a few things about it.

  1. Will it be easy to change to another designer in the future?  If the cms is something your designer has sole access to or it’s not well-known, a change may be difficult.  There may be a number of reasons you will need to change designer and not all of them because you lose faith in your designer.  Ultimately you need to know you control your site.
  2. Is the cms likely to be around for the foreseeable future?  If it belongs to a company, how likely is it the company will be around in a few years?
  3. What are the costs for now and in the future?
  4. How easy will it be to add content yourself?
  5. What if you wish to extend your site’s functionality ?  Are you confident you will be able to extend it in five years time?

WordPress

I recommend WordPress because it is open source (which means it is not dependent on a single company) and offers you loads of potential functionality.   It is well-known should you need help from other sources after your contract with your designer is over.

For the rest of this series I shall assume you are using WordPress.  The next question is WordPress.org or WordPress.com?

If you have a designer, then opt for .org because it has extended functionality.  WordPress.com is really a blog; if you are on your own it is easier to set up but doesn’t have the potential for expansion of .org.  You can assign your domain name to it.

Your designer will help you purchase a host and domain name for your site if you choose .org.

Remember if you take this route you will need to renew your host and domain name, usually once a year. Failure to do this will jeopardise your site.  Some designers look after your site for you but remember you may have difficulties if you want to change designer in the future.

Remember to discuss these issues with your designer before s/he makes a start.

What cms do you use?  Do you have a cms other than WordPress you recommend?  Why?

On the Naming of Sites

Last Thursday I introduced a sequence about how to manage your website designer or consultant as they help you develop your site.  An early decision, in any new relationship with a designer, is the naming of sites.

So, you know what you want from your new web presence and you’re planning to set up a website?  Don’t let your designer name the site – it is your decision.

Your aim is to choose a domain name, the address visitors type into their browser to find your site.

So, here are some things to consider:

  • Your site can be named in a way that clearly states what you offer, eg forumhousecommunityforum.org might be a good name for Forum House Community Forum.  That is if this domain name is available.  This is known as a literal name.
  • You can equally choose a brand name.  This creates an impression but does not give much away about your offer, eg Panthers21, where “Panthers” has local significance around Forum House and 21 might be from the postcode.  Again check the domain name is available.
  • Whatever you choose, use conventional spelling.  Panferz21 might make sense locally but what will people write if you say it?  It’s bad enough having to say “forumhousecommunityforum is all one word in lower case” without having to spell it out as well!  Whilst people are aware of this type of thing, there is still plenty of scope for confusion – minimise it!
  • Keep it short!  If you go for my example for Forum House, why not simply forumhouse.com?  It saves typing, is easier to remember and maybe more likely to appear in search results.  That is assuming the domain name is available.
  • Make sure when you scrunch word together you don’t inadvertently create something hilarious or offensive.
  • You also need to think about your domain extension.  If you are trading .com is probably best, if not try .org.  If you are in the uk you might consider adding .uk to the end, thus .org.uk !  There are other options but most people won’t think to try them if they forget the extension.  And some are a bit iffy for search engines.
  • Your domain name will help people search for the site when they know its name.  Don’t confuse your domain name with the keywords you use for search engine optimisation, these are the words people use when they don’t know your domain name, to find your site.  Another topic altogether!

Don’t forget you hire domain names and pay a fee every year.  They’re not terrifically expensive, usually under £15 and the extensions make a bit of a difference.  And don’t forget to renew it – if you don’t want to lose your site!

Website domain name disasters – any offers?  Examples of where things have gone wrong, that we can learn from might be helpful.

Designer or Consultant?

In this new sequence, I’ll show you how to manage your relationship with a website designer or consultant.

When you set up your web presence you have three options:

  1. Do it yourself.  If you understand the basics, eg html and css, it isn’t difficult to do it yourself, with packages such as WordPress.  If you have time and patience, the big advantage is you are not paying someone.  However, no-one knows everything and you will inevitably find you need help with something!
  2. If you know what your site will do for you but want to save time, then hire a designer.  You need to manage this relationship.  Some designers have a lot of experience and can deliver to a clear remit with minimal oversight.  Third sector, designers can lack experience, working for next to nothing; they understand how things work but not necessarily how to design a web presence that does the job.  Someone with limited experience may be able to help but will need supervision.  To supervise effectively you need to understand what’s involved.
  3. If you are not sure what you need or what your web presence can do for your organisation, you need a consultant.

The many online guides for people who set up their own websites cover option 1.  This sequence is going to equip you with the basic technical knowledge you need for options 2 and 3.  Third sector organisations may find with professional help they can do a lot of the work in-house. So, this information may help with option 1 as well!

Which do You Need?

If you employ an experienced designer or consultant they guide you through the steps. It is helpful to have some  understanding of their role.  If a website designer has technical knowledge only, the initiative is with you to guide creation of your web presence.

My sequence about consultancy will help you understand more about the role of the consultant and consultor.  These new Thursday posts will introduce you to the technical knowledge you need to guide an inexperienced designer or work more productively with an experienced designer or consultant.

Design is a species of consultancy.  Not all designers necessarily see it that way.  In conversation you will find your ideas change and develop but you may find you need to steer the design process to do what you need.  Equally not all consultants are necessarily brilliant at all aspects of technique.  They can help you work out what is and is not possible online and help with design details.

The Difference

It is not always clear-cut but consultants help you solve problems – this is what I want to do in real life, how can my web presence help? – whereas designers find the best solution to an agreed plan.  So a consultant might help you work out what you need from a WordPress theme, a designer will find the best theme and adapt it to meet your needs.  Sometimes the same person does both.

You need to understand your designer or consultant’s offer, their strengths and weaknesses and manage your relationship accordingly.

So, for this sequence I shall assume you know what you want.  There may be some choices to make and you will change your mind as your web presence develops but you are crystal clear about your requirements.  This is probably never true in real life but the assumption will enable me to focus on the technical issues.  I’ll deal with other issues elsewhere.

What have you found to be most problematic about your relationships with web designers or consultants?  What are the marks of a good relationship?

WordPress or Flat HTML / CSS?

The last two Thursdays, I’ve looked at the pros and cons of using WordPress.  Today: is it right to always use WordPress (or another CMS) or is flat HTML/CSS better in some cases?  (HTML and CSS are the mark-up and formatting languages used on all websites.)

Many designers build sites from scratch; this is not always a good idea.  If you are working with a designer, especially someone who is a volunteer designer, you need to decide between WordPress (or some other CMS) or flat html /css.  It is important you make this decision independently of your designers experience.  Do not make the wrong decision because your designer can’t do the right one!  You don’t need to understand everything, just enough to make the right decision.

A temporary site or a brochure site (where the client simply wants to duplicate their printed brochure online so people can see what they offer) might be designed using html/css.  If you decide later you want something more complex, it is not usually a problem; setting up a WordPress site is very easy.  However, if you find you have a lot of traffic to a brochure site, you transfer to a WordPress site.  If you’re expecting significant traffic it’s always best to start as you mean to go on!

Checklist

So, run through this checklist.  If the site does not meet any of these criteria, choose html/css.  Once you’ve decided, you need a designer who can deliver your decision.  Use WordPress if

  1. the site will be more than a few pages and expected to do some complex things
  2. you know the site will need to be regularly updated
  3. you are going to make the changes to the site, not the designer.
  4. your site will have a lot going on in the background
  5. you need WordPress plug-in functionality or might add new functionality in the future.

If you have an HTML/CSS site and it’s working for you, please comment about it and leave a link.  Do you keep it up-to-date yourself or do you pay someone to do it for you?  How does this work?

Six Drawbacks Using WordPress

Last Thursday, I showed you 10 reasons for using WordPress.  There are some disadvantages; although outweighed by the advantages you need to be aware so that you don’t have unrealistic expectations.

WordPress is a doorway to everything you need for a website, easily to hand.  However, to use WordPress, you need to overlay it with a theme.  Once you have a theme it’s like trying to paint your entrance hall through the letter box!  In other words, you may need help to get your WordPress site running properly.  Fortunately there’s lots of help around.

So, here are five things to watch out for:

  1. It takes time to understand any content management system.  WordPress is no different from other platforms.  So, if you pick a theme and want to adapt it to your requirements it can be quite difficult at least until you’re used to the way WordPress works.
  2. Security is an issue because WordPress is so popular.  Every crook and idiot in the universe seems to target it.  There are some good plug-ins that look after all this for you, but you need to install them, keep them up-to-date and be mindful of good housekeeping.
  3. Good housekeeping means installing updates as soon as they become available and maintaining your site.   You must install updates because they enhance site security but they can crash your site.  This happened to me last week and it is a pain!
  4. Good housekeeping includes the need to back up your site.  This is fairly complicated to set up but easy once running.  If you don’t do this, you can’t be certain you’ll recover your site should it crash!
  5. Plug-ins are variable in quality and some of them are not reliable and can jeopardise your site.  So choose the popular ones, where you can be certain of their reputation.
  6. As soon as you install WordPress, you have a massive site, even though initially you won’t use all its functionality.  It gets bigger when you install plug-ins and if you install too many it can slow your site down.  This is not an issue I’ve encountered too much, although some people do complain about it.

So, what has been your experience using WordPress?  Almost certainly, you will have found it’s brilliant once you’ve set it up.  It’s the set up that’s the problem.

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