Glossary of Client Onboarding Terminology

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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We get it, if websites were your “thing” you would not be working with us. And for that we are grateful! We take our responsibility to educate you seriously which is why we have built a glossary of terms below (and will be writing more blogs to dig deeper into some of these terms). This is not so that you can become an expert but just so as we work on your project, you feel comfortable with and understand the language we are using.

Anchor Point

Anchor link, or jump tag, enables you to create a hyperlink to a part of the same page. You’ve seen them. It’s when you click on a drop down menu thinking you’re going to go to a different page on the site and it just scrolls down the same page to a different section of content. This is a great way to navigate information especially when you don’t want to have a lot of pages, particularly short pages.

Back End

Consists of a server, an application, and a database. It dictates what happens when a user interacts with a site. A visitor to your site cannot actually see the back end of the site – site managers and admins can log into the back end to edit the site’s content and/or code.

Backup

A saved version of your site so that is something ever happens/breaks, we can revert back to a recently saved, properly functioning, version. We backup all of our hosted sites daily so nobody has to worry.

Content

Text and visual content that is part of the user experience. It includes text, images, sounds, videos, etc.

Conversion

Getting your visitors to do what you want them to do, whether that is to buy your product, sign up for your newsletter, register for a webinar, download a whitepaper, or fill out a lead/contact form, etc.

Design

Part of the process of creating websites. It encompasses several different aspects, including layout, content production, and graphics/media. While the terms web design and web development are often used interchangeably, web design is technically a subset of the broader category of web development.

Development

The main non-design aspects of building websites like writing code, creating functionality, and, configuring the back end.

DNS Records

Control where all the traffic goes to and from your domain. Think of DNS like a traffic cop, directing everyone where they need to go. Similarly, DNS records tell all inbound & outbound traffic where to go.

Domain Name

Your website address or URL. (i.e. yourname.com). Think of it as your home address on the web.

Domain Registrar

Where you purchased your domain name. There are hundreds of domain registrars out there, but the most common ones are GoDaddy.com, NameCheap.com or NetworkSolutions.com.

E-commerce

 Electronic commerce or internet commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions.

Email Provider

Like hosting (below), but for your email. It’s where you go to login and access your email messages. The most common providers are Google/GSuite, Outlook.com or free email through your hosting provider.

Front End

What users see and interact with from fonts to colors to content.

Google Analytics

One of the most popular digital analytics software. This free web analytics service allows you to analyze in-depth detail about the visitors on your website. It provides valuable insights that can help you to shape the success strategy of your business from the number of visitors to where they live, how they accessed your site, what pages they visited, and how long they stayed on each page.

Homepage

The main page a visitor navigating to your website will see; it is sometimes to referred to as a landing page. The homepage is a visitor’s first impression.

Hosting Provider

Hosting is what allows your website to live on the web. Hosting is like your landlord — it’s who you pay monthly or yearly to keep your site online.

Header

Used to reference items at the very top of your website. Often it is used to only reference the first large image (or header image) that most websites have but it can also include the smaller top menu and navigation bars.

Integration

Can be used in many ways when it comes to websites but we are specifically referencing when another entity (software, social media, program, database, etc.) is placed inside of or made to work with a website.

Layout

A website layout is a pattern (or framework) that defines a website’s structure. It has the role of organizing the information present on a site both for the website’s owner and for users.

Menu (or Navigation Menu)

A collection or list of links. The most common placement of a menu is in the site navigation area or navigation bar at the top of each website page. This is where your main pages are listed and child or internal pages can be listed as a drop down.

Plug-in

A piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress.

Responsive

Adaptability of a website to respond to the size of screen it is being viewed on. A responsive site will render well on a variety of screen sizes using flexible layouts.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. It is how you get Google, and other search engines, to notice and list your website as search results.

Slider

A slideshow added into a web page, often as a rotating header image either on the homepage or at the top of interior pages. You can also add sliders as lower sections on a page; it’s basically just a rotating image. There are many WordPress plugins available which allow you to create your own sliders and add them to your home page, landing pages, posts, or anywhere you want.

Template (also called a child-theme)

The layout or blueprint of your site; it helps structure your website, giving you areas to place pictures and text, or things like navigation bars and other widgets. Your template should vary depending on the kind of page you are creating, but will share similar patterns across your site. A layout for a gallery page will differ to the layout for your blog page, which in turn, will differ from your contact page; however, they will also have things in common, for example, the location of your navigation bar. The template is like the walls and furniture of your house.

Theme

A builder for your site. You can almost relate a theme to an architect for your house.  Some themes are highly customizable and some are not. Themes dictate how you can build your site and what you can change. They can have set layouts you can build with, but others have smaller pieces you can use how you want. We use mainly Divi. We love Divi because of the custom design abilities, the easy-to-use visual builder, and the functionality/versatility of the modules.

Updates

Referring to WordPress and plugins. They need to be updated! Most updates keep improving plugins by adding new features, improving code quality, and keeping them secure. You should always keep your WordPress plugins up to date to ensure that those changes are applied on your site immediately. When WordPress itself has an update, it’s probably a good idea to let a developer take care of that update as it can impact everything on your site especially if the update isn’t compatible with a plugin. We manage all updates as part of our maintenance plan.

Uptime

Simply the amount of time your website is live. Ideally, it is 100% of the time!

User Experience (UX)

Literally how a visitor or user interacts with each element of your website. It is important for visitors to have a great experience or they will leave. Good UX has an understanding of what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. Three keys to successful UX: effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction. UX is structural whereas UI (often used interchangeably) is more aesthetic.

User Interface (UI)

Focuses on anticipating what users might need to do and ensuring that the interface has elements that are easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate those actions. UI brings together concepts from interaction design, visual design, and information architecture. UX is structural whereas UI (often used interchangeably) is more aesthetic. (Want to dive deeper into UX & UI?)

Website Strategy

Deserves a much longer narrative but for a very high-level overview, a website needs a strategy to be successful. Some elements of a web strategy are: knowing your goals & objectives, understanding user, knowing market and competitors, knowing what tools are necessary, and having good messaging. Here are some questions to get you started.

Website Functionality

All the things your website can do both from a macro (i.e. blog, events calendar, forms) to a micro level. On one level it is the ease with which a viewer can navigate your site and obtain the information they are seeking. It is also the steps and actions that they take to get from one point to another, i.e. buttons, calls to actions, links, page navigation, etc. But from a macro level, it is specific functions you want your website to perform like have a form or an events calendar or maybe integrate with your CRM system.

Wireframe

A schematic, blueprint or skeletal framework of a website. A wireframe typically uses boxes and dummy text to show where and how content and other elements will be laid out on a website. Wireframes are used for a quick mockup of the arrangement of website elements for accomplishing a specific purpose, be it aesthetic or usability.

Widget/Snippet

A small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user.

We had help writing out these definitions – thanks to techterms.comtechopedia.comWordPresswebstrategist.comwpbeginner.com.

Wordpress, Divi, & Child Themes

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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It doesn’t take long in a conversation to realize that people don’t know a ton about WordPress or theme-based web design. The average person gets a particular look in their eyes when you start using words like “CMS,” “web-builder,” or “child-themes.” We get it, not everyone is a web developer. So through working with a variety of clients who vary in “tech-fluency,” we have found ways of explaining important terms that might be foreign or misunderstood.

There are 3 buzzwords that we are going to walk through in this article. We will move from broadest to most specific in order to explain their relationship. The comparison that we use most often is building a house, so hopefully, this analogy will help your understanding.

To start us off, WordPress. It makes up over 30% of all the internet according to a technology survey by W3Techs in 2018 (a 5% increase since the end of 2015). It is the most used CMS (content management system) globally. We at GruffyGoat only use WordPress. We do this for many reasons, such as reliability, familiarity, sustainability, and functionality. The other options are custom coding, Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, Drupal, etc. WordPress is like a plot of land when building a house. You can find a plot of land that has certain amenities and features that aren’t found anywhere else, but ultimately you want to build a house on that land. WordPress has familiar amenities like an easy media library, a native blog, an ecosystem of free plugins that allow for very complex functions. There is a lot to love about the overall structure of WordPress, but it’s just the lot where you build your house.

To build your house you need a contractor and an architect. Someone to show you what your structural options are and how things could look and work in your new house. Websites are no different. Enter themes. Themes are just ways to build your house. Some themes are very open to customization and can do pretty much anything you want, but have higher price tags (very similar to actual contractors and architects 🤔). Themes that are less expensive usually have less design and functionality options. At GruffyGoat we use a theme called Divi. This is an Elegant Themes builder (S/O to Elegant Themes…send the check!) that allows for fully custom design. There is very little that Divi cannot accomplish. Divi is to web development, what Joanna Gaines is to a house. We love Divi because of the custom design abilities, the easy-to-use visual builder, and the functionality/versatility of the modules.

Here is where some confusion can come in with the analogy and the breakdown of our terms. Remember, a theme is a builder. The construction or development of the site happens with the theme you choose. Some themes, however, don’t have our final vocabulary word (child-themes). When building with these themes, you are given minimal options for customization so your final site looks exactly like the other sites built with that theme. Similar to how some contractors build houses in massive subdivisions. The contractor has one blueprint and his job is to build that exact house over and over again with little variation other than siding and door color. This results in a nice new affordable home that is aesthetically identical to all of its neighbors.

Finally, this is where the child-theme steps in. A child-theme, sometimes called a template, is where the builder of your house lets you choose the floorplan, pick paint swatches, customize your cabinets and countertops, and choose your light fixtures. This will separate your house from all the others on your street built with the same contractor. Child-themes only come with certain themes, as mentioned above. Templates are pre-built sites that have set typography, layouts, and smaller functional parts (i.e. contact forms, email opt-ins, menus, etc.) which are stylized together. They allow you to pick which sections you like from a builder and use them to form a completely designed website. The typical child-theme comes with premade layouts that can work for multiple types of content and pages. They also come with individual sections, like header, contact form, testimonials, etc. that are styled and easy to insert anywhere.

The benefit of using a child-theme is simple. The child-theme site is already styled cohesively with all the functional pieces completely developed, so building the site will be faster and more efficient.

We have friends that specialize in making child-themes for Divi. If you are still a little confused about the differences between themes and child-themes, you should check out BeSuperfly.com. They use Divi Theme builder, but the final products are all so different. There is a ton of variety in Divi which allows for a multitude of unique Divi child-themes.

If you have a question about where to start on your new website, check out some of our other articles or contact us. We would love to work with you on your next project.

What to Wear to a Creative Interview

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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We recently just hired for an open position at GruffyGoat. I’m excited to be building our team, especially since it’s an addition to MY team. The interview process has been interesting and has led me to think about the interview etiquette that I learned as I was entering into the workforce. And… it seems like maybe everything I was told must not be the same any longer.

Really, most of what I’m talking about has to do with interview attire. I’ll be honest, my parents bought me a nice new black pantsuit when I was about to graduate college (and it wasn’t that long ago!) and I have literally never worn it. I found that the types of jobs I was interviewing for, creative companies and agencies, didn’t call for a somber black suit. I still dressed up. I wanted to look like a professional. I wanted to dress to impress. After all, this was a very important first (or maybe second) impression.

Let me back up and say that we are a very casual company. I tend to wear what I call “client appropriate” business casual but it’s not uncommon to see me in yoga pants. We really don’t have a dress code; it’s really just “be appropriate.” Some days this means shorts, some days it means a collared shirt or dress. All of this being said, I have been somewhat surprised, maybe even shocked, at the attire our interviewees have shown up wearing to interviews. Maybe I’m old school but I don’t feel like an interview, especially an official one, is a casual meeting. No matter how casual the company is that you are interviewing for. You still need to add the “business” in front of casual. 

I can see you raising your hand and saying, but you just said your company is casual. Yes. 

And, if someone shows up dressed casually it could just mean they researched your company and you should be impressed. Um, sure. Maybe. 

I don’t expect or even want to see a boring black suit. Because you’re right, that would show me that the person did not do their research. But, there is a level of casualness that says a person just doesn’t care. That they’re not willing to put in the effort to put their best foot forward.

At the end of the day, if you dress “business casual” then you should be fine! [Google it.] Dressing up a pair of jeans is perfectly acceptable for an agency, flip flops are not. 

Look at your creative agency interview as an opportunity to make a lasting [positive] impression. Show how much you care about the opportunity and also show us a bit of your personality. Your wardrobe choice is just another way to show us your love for creativity, even if you’re a boring accounts person like me.

Interview Questions at Creative Companies

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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We just completed a round of interviews for a new position on our team. Some people hate this process but I found it fascinating to think through different questions to ask and how to judge the responses. It was also very interesting the types of questions some people ask and why. Interviews aren’t just about can a person do the job but it’s also about will that person fit in with the team and company culture. Super important with a smaller company like ours.

For instance, one of our owners is always very interested in historical questions like, What was the first thing you were ever paid for? At first, I didn’t understand why this mattered but then he explained how different answers can reflect things like work ethic or even desire to learn. For instance, if the answer is they had a regular lemonade stand from age 8 then we can glean they are an entrepreneurial type. But, if someone never did anything to earn money until after college, then it can cause us to question their drive to succeed. Now, I’m simplifying for the sake of an example because the person who didn’t earn any money might have spent all their free time training to be an accomplished musician or athlete. But isn’t it interesting to think about how our past can still make an impact on a potential employer?

For me, I’m always thinking situationally for the job at hand. Questions like, how would you respond if “this” happened? I usually try to think about a challenge I’ve experienced and see how the interviewee thinks they will respond. There isn’t always a right or wrong answer. Sometimes, I’m not sure, can even be a fine answer. Challenges are the best opportunity to learn and sometimes making mistakes in your responses are the best lessons.

As we were discussing questions to ask our applicants, we started telling stories about our worst and best interviews. One great question that came up was “What is your worst habit?” I thought this was a great twist on the expected, “What is your greatest weakness?”

We liked the idea of not asking those traditional questions so that we don’t get practiced responses. And this leads me to the two questions we shared from our own past interviews that I thought were the best:

1. If you woke up to an elephant in your backyard, what would you do?

2. If you were a bean, what bean would you be?

It was pretty interesting what we determined from our responses. For instance, the person who was actually asked the elephant question said she would put a sari on, take it to the beach and pretend I’m visiting India. Creative answer for a creative question. And fun. And she is fun.

My first thought was, check to see if there are any peanuts in the house and fill up the kiddie pool with water. And, of course, my imaginary backyard was fenced. Can you tell I’m a mom? I bet you my answer would have been different pre-kids.

I was actually asked the bean question several years ago and I think I said black bean – something about it being healthy? But one of our designers had the best (and immediate, no thinking reply) – jelly bean. Clearly, I’m not the fun one.

So, no right or wrong answers. But, when you ask unusual questions, it is pretty fascinating what you can tell about a person. How they will respond to new situations, challenges, and if they are the right person to round out your team.

I Now Pronounce You Client and Developer

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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Like any great relationship, communication is the key component to make it work.

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A client asked me a great question today. He wanted to know where to draw the line with how much direction and instruction he should give us on his website. And unfortunately, I did not have a black and white answer. I then compared our client/project manager relationship to a marriage. I told him, if you have an expectation that you want or need met then you have to communicate it. Otherwise, there is no guarantee we will guess correctly and both sides will be frustrated. 

There really is a spectrum when it comes to how this works. On one end there is little to no direction or preference from the client and on the other, there is total client domination and incessant hand-holding. In reality, most projects fall somewhere in between, but there are always extremes. And where each project falls on the spectrum depends on the client and how much they want to be involved. Where projects can go wrong is when a client changes their position midstream. Maybe they began the project not wanting to have any input, but by the end of the project they not only want to micro-manage the project but they also bring in a team of new people to help. We can try to figure out where a client is on this spectrum at the beginning of a project when possible, even by asking how much control they want. Then we try to set those expectations throughout the project. But in the end, from our perspective, we have to play a guessing game.

Our process allows for several points of review. Depending on the type of project, our clients review style tiles, designs, homepage layouts, and more. We want projects to be collaborative with our clients, so we provide lots of chances for adjustment and input. We also encourage clients to bring all the NECESSARY players to the table at the start of the project. We typically find the “design by committee” approach to be ineffective. It’s hard when clients exhaust all rounds of edits and THEN bring the “the big boss” in at the end because that usually leads to incurring extra costs. Our client relationships are very important to us and we take particular measures to preserve those.

Like any great relationship, communication is the key component to make it work. The way you communicate with someone can determine how strong and lasting your relationship could be. We want to make our partnership as successful as possible, so our goal is to be as intentional and respectful as possible, and we hope you’ll do the same!

 

Ready to Launch

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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It’s easy to get lost in the complexity of everything that goes into building a website, so before we jump in, we want to explain our process and exactly what we need and what we do to launch your site. But first, let’s start by defining some frequently used words that are involved in the process.

Glossary of Terms:

  • Domain Name: this is your website address or URL. (i.e. yourname.com). Think of it as your home address on the web.
  • Domain Registrar: this is where you purchased your domain name. There are hundreds of domain registrars out there, but the most common ones are GoDaddy.com, NameCheap.com or NetworkSolutions.com.
  • Hosting Provider: hosting is what allows your website to live on the web. Hosting is like your landlord — it’s who you pay monthly or yearly to keep your site online.
  • Email Provider: like hosting, but for your email. It’s where you go to login and access your email messages. The most common providers are Google/GSuite, Outlook.com or free email through your hosting provider.
  • DNS Records: DNS records control where all the traffic goes to and from your domain. Think of DNS like a traffic cop, directing everyone where they need to go. Similarly, DNS records tell all inbound & outbound traffic where to go.
    Now that we understand what each of these things are, let’s get into our process!

Step 1: Figuring out your Setup

The first thing we need to know is 1) Do you have a custom email account (i.e. yourname@yourdomain.com) and if yes, 2) where is your email currently hosted? If you don’t have a custom address or you use a 3rd party like Google/GSuite or Outlook — great! That simplifies the process. However, if you have free email from your current hosting provider, you’ll need to decide how you wish to proceed. You typically have 3 options:

  • Move your email accounts to a reliable 3rd party provider — we can help point you in the right direction.
  • Contact your host to see if they offer email-only services or what the cheapest way is to continue receiving email services through them.
  • Leave everything as-is and continue paying the hosting fee in order to continue using your current email services.

Once we’ve determined how your email is setup, we can then determine where we need to make changes to your DNS records. We always prefer to eliminate unnecessary systems and steps from the process when we can. This streamlines the process and also saves you money in the long run.

Step 2: Collecting your Logins

If you’re an expert or familiar with making changes to your DNS records, then we’re happy to provide instructions so you can make the changes on your own. Otherwise, we’re happy to handle it for you! We’ll need the following logins to get started:

  • Hosting Provider Login
  • Domain Registrar Login

See glossary list above if you’re not 100% sure what these are.

Step 3: Launch Day!

Once all revisions are approved and you’re ready to launch, we’ll select a day and time that works best for you to launch the site. There’s a lot that goes into launching a site, but here’s a quick overview of the work we do behind the scenes:

  • Change DNS records to point your website traffic to our servers.
  • Order & install SSL certificate — this is what makes your site secure with the padlock icon in the address bar and https vs. http.
  • Ensure that all site links are changed from the temporary development link to the live URL and fix all insecure content warnings due to SSL implementation.
  • Setup redirects (if requested) to point any old URL’s to the new site.
  • Optimize images to ensure all our sized appropriately to load quickly on all devices.
  • Implement Google Analytics & Google Search Console — used to record your site traffic and activity of your website visitors.
  • Install required plugins used to monitor your site’s security, traffic & updates (ManageWP, Yoast).
  • Setup and configure monthly reports — a monthly report you will receive on the 1st of each month that shows your uptime and work we did throughout the month.

Once our work is complete, we’ll send a quick recap email letting you know your site is launched and what next steps are, including how to contact our support team. We’ll also provide a walkthrough video that will show you how to make basic edits to your site. If you signed up for SEO services, we’ll provide you with a timeframe of when you can expect completion of that work alongside the SEO Analysis Report.

This all may sound like a lot of work — and it is — but not for you! The most important thing we need from you are the logins to your domain and/or hosting providers if we are performing the changes to your DNS records. Once we have that, we’ll handle the rest. But we’ve outlined all of our launch steps here so that you know what to expect and what we will be doing to ensure your new site is launched as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

Great Expectations

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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The thing about any relationship, whether friendship, romantic, or business, is that we all come in with our own expectations. And it seems that as humans, we have a hard time communicating those expectations to each other. Maybe it’s because we don’t understand what they are ourselves, or we just expect people to read our minds. 

Even in our business, creating websites, we run into this and like any relationship, uncommunicated expectations can create tension. We try to define our expectations in our proposal for every project and talk about them on a kick-off call but there are several things that tend to be misunderstood.

Themes

A theme is like a blueprint for your house. Picking your theme is like picking the location of the walls and windows of your home. They are (mostly) permanent. The “customization” of your theme is adding branding, colors, fonts, etc. Most themes have a lot of options for the layout of those walls and windows, but you need to choose within those options available in the theme. The biggest misunderstanding of expectations when it comes to a theme is the level of customization available and just like building a house, if you want to “upgrade” your options, there will be extra costs incurred.

Rounds of Revisions

Most of our projects have a restriction on the number of edits clients are allowed. And confusion comes into play on not only what a “round” is, but also what counts as an “edit” or “revision.” The idea behind a round of edits is that once we send you something to review, either a single page or multiple on your site, you get a chance to review what we sent. This review needs to be exhaustive. Spend time, marinate, get everyone that is allowed an opinion involved, and make a list. Once that list is complete. That is your round. We will then complete your edits, if possible, and then you will get a chance to look again. Ideally, this last round (if you have 2 total) is a minimal list.

Edits

I mentioned edits or revisions above but wanted to spend more time on what is an edit. Technically, an edit is a change. But, the level of change can be drastically different. And some edits are within the scope and some are not. For a theme, once you pick a theme you are limited to what is in that theme unless specified otherwise in your scope of work. So, an appropriate edit would be to change the color of that button, switch out this image, change this content, replace this section layout with this other section from the theme. There are others but that is a start. Now, for a custom design, there is less restriction in some ways BUT once a design is approved, any changes to that design might incur an extra cost. We try to be as clear and communicative as possible around those. Changes that are almost always out of scope when not in the original proposal are custom forms, adding plug-ins, additional integrations, extra pages, and custom functionality.

Final Content

This kind of plays off of the above with rounds of edits but it is worth segmenting out. Changing out content counts as an edit. Whether it is ALL of your content or just a sentence. We usually ask for FINAL content before we even begin designs or building out your site. We simply cannot build anything without knowing what we are building for or around. Any time we try to begin without final content it actually leads to more rework even though it may feel like we’re gaining time by getting started sooner. It actually adds time later on. We are mostly asking for text although final images are also great. We can use placeholder images, but just remember that changing images needs to be accounted for in a round of edits.

To close, we experience a level of unrealistic expectations. We understand that our clients do not build websites – that’s why you work with us! But like any service provider, we outline what is included in each project. If you add to that, it can add an additional cost. If you have questions about what each line item includes, just ask! We may expect you to know and we could be wrong – and vice versa! More questions can only provide more clarity.

Developing a Camel

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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I’m a big fan of the show Parks and Recreation. First, because it’s hilarious. Second, it addresses a lot of work-related issues that we, at GruffyGoat, deal with every day. For instance, there is one episode where the Parks Department has to design a mural for city hall. The whole team gets involved and they all come up with separate ideas for the mural and then try to force it all together into one piece. The product of this is what one of the characters calls a “camel.” He goes on to say “a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.”

We have talked about this idea of design by committee in some of our other blog posts, but I’m going to elaborate on the topic a bit and give a couple of reasons why it isn’t a good idea. Or why, if you need to have a committee, that committee needs to meet and be on the same page prior to the project beginning and not at the end.

Time

One of the biggest requests from clients we receive regarding their websites is that it gets launched as soon as possible. For the most part, we can achieve that goal and we do. However, there is one thing that always delays our project launches. “Sorry for the delay in response, we just sent the site over for review from our account team. They haven’t seen it yet and have some thoughts on what needs to happen with it.” This especially causes a delay when we have already run through our two rounds of revisions without the “higher ups” even seeing the site. 

We run a tight ship here at GruffyGoat. Our process is quick and getting quicker as we grow and learn, but we can’t account for clients spending a week debating internally the order of the menu or color on the button on the contact form. Now don’t get me wrong, we wholeheartedly want your company to be happy with their website and we will work on it until you are, but sometimes clients get caught up in the small details and forget the big goal of having a new website up and running on a good profitable timeline.

Money

We give every client a certain number of rounds of edits, which is where the client can review the site and note anything that is not living up to their expectations. This is a great system because this allows us to develop to a certain point and then receive feedback on our work in order to continue on the project with the client’s vision in view.

However, here is where designing by committee can hurt a client. If we are working with our contact person and on a round of edits they send the site to be reviewed by another department or by their managers. This is probably the first time this new party will have seen the site, which in itself is fine, but the new party doesn’t have any background on the previous versions of the site, the previous content on the site, the limitations of the scope of the project, and the overall process and where the project is in the process.

Again, we are very willing to work with whoever you need on a project and we welcome new fresh eyes on a project, but a round of edits is not a good time to discuss a new function of your site. Our recommendation is that anyone that is allowed to have an opinion, but especially the final decision-makers, should be involved in the process from the start. But, we also recommend limiting the number of people who are given an opinion and make sure you prioritize those opinions, who has a veto and final decision power. And please make those decisions before coming to us.

Communicate internally about the needs and wants of your site before you sign our contract containing the limitations of the scope. We can gladly add functionality to your site after you launch, but it will cost you a little extra.

How to Win

Just so you all know, we love our clients. When you sign a contract with us, we want you to be so happy with your website that you tell everyone you meet about it. We want you to be proud of what you built. The goal of our projects is for you to get an affordable website quickly and efficiently. In order to do this, you need to remember these things. First, discuss all needs and all wants before starting the project. Second, not everyone needs to have a voice. Finally, the goal is getting the website up and running, so don’t get hung up on the little things.

Video Killed the Radio Star and Your Media Library

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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One issue we run into regularly at GruffyGoat is client video files. I think most people assume they can just upload .mp4 files to a WordPress site and the world will continue on its path with little to no consequences. This is not the case. I’m here to talk about solutions to this devastating issue.

YouTube

What we usually tell our clients is upload everything on YouTube and we can connect the video from there. We stand by this recommendation for a couple of reasons: YouTube is familiar, FREE, owned by Google, FREE, beneficial for SEO, pretty well seamless to use and connect too, and oh yeah, FREE. However, if you want video content to come up organically in a YouTube search, you have your work cut out for you. YouTube has been called the second largest search engine on the internet, meaning YouTube has an absolute surplus of videos on all topics. Simply put, it is hard to get your video to the top without cheating the system. The other issue we have run into with YouTube is if you want a private list of videos with exclusive content to display on a members-only page, YouTube can’t do that with the traditional connection methods.

Other Video Hosting

YouTube is not the only video hosting service. If YouTube is not meeting your needs, check out Wistia, Vimeo, or DailyMotion. These are just a few options that could compete for your video hosting service. The number one complaint I can see from this list is they are all paid services. I get it, the last thing you want in this life is another bill. I get that on a very deep level but listen, you get what you pay for. The reason these are paid video hosting is due to the service you are receiving. Do some research. You won’t regret finding a tool that will take some stress and hassle off you for your business. There is merit to each of these services that separates them from the rest of the market.

Manage Your File Sizes

I’m not going to harp on this too long, but some of you have an issue with file sizes. **Side Rant** If you are uploading an image and the size is 7MB, step away from the Media Library, take a breathe, and compress the file. That will save you in the future, in more ways than you know.**End Rant** If you are uploading a single video file to your site for a cool header or something, you don’t have to create a YouTube channel to host that single soundless 45-second video. (However, that might be a good idea in some cases and we will probably recommend that to be honest.) You can upload a nicely packaged and minimized file to the back of your WordPress site. We treat this as a last case scenario because it can cause problems as a regular practice, but before we do this please send us the cleanest, smallest, most optimized file for your site. Here is a blog post from Learn G2 explaining clean video management.

In summary, videos are a great part of your website content and we welcome beautiful videography with open arms, but please be mindful of file management and please plan for video hosting of some kind whether through YouTube or some other party. There is a lot to consider for a website, but that’s why building and growing with our GruffyGoat team is a smart idea to consider. Contact us if you want to learn more.

Which Comes First? The Content or Design?

by GruffyGoat Team written on
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Today’s topic really revolves around your sitemap and content! Your sitemap are the pages on your website and how they are organized. Content is all the text and media that will be on the site. There are really two main schools of thought for web design pertaining to when content comes into play for a project. 

  1. Design first, content second.
  2. Content first, design around the content.

Guess which school of thought we fall into? If you chose #2, then you are correct. I like how Slickplan explains this:

“Great websites start with great content! Create and organize your content first so that it drives design, not the other way around… More efficiently planned content leads to less time and money spent, fewer revisions, and a reduction of coding do-overs.”

They pretty much hit the nail on the head. In our experience, beginning to build or design a website without at least rough text content leads to many more revisions down the road. In essence, we cannot design around content that we cannot see. We cannot determine the best layout for a section without knowing if we are working with a paragraph, a title plus a list, one image or three images. We will guess based on assumptions and more than likely guess wrong. This guessing game becomes frustrating for all involved.

There are some agencies that work design first and it’s not wrong! It’s just not our style.

So, if you are looking to work with us, start thinking about your content before signing the dotted line, because we are going to ask you for it. If you need help with this, let us know! We have copywriters that can work with you getting everything organized and written. And we are happy to have a sit down to dig deeper into your needs and questions.