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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.