Now that you have chosen your new website platform, how do you start moving forward with a new theme to start working with?
Start Searching!
That is the only way to really get moving. Start looking at themes, Google searches, etc. Every theme you look at will instantly give you a positive or negative reaction. It’s either a direction you do not want to go, or a direction you would consider. The idea is to gather 3-5 different themes that you like to start narrowing everything down to one. Keep in mind, you can always change a theme, and the cost is very little compared to developing your own custom theme from complete scratch.
Where do I start searching?
First of all, you’ll want to keep your eye out for a few friendly words in general when looking at themes:
- Mobile Friendly/Mobile Optimized Design
- Responsive (All Screen Sizes, including Tablets and Mobile)
- Elementor Ready/Drag & Drop (Optional, however this is typically one of the most popular tools to edit pages)
- ANYTHING can be hidden from a theme, images can be changed, colors can be changed, nothing has to stay the way that it is in a demo. We are just looking for a starting point for the new website.
So with that in mind, we typically start with a simple search here:
Click on the image or you can also Click Here!
Hundreds of results, tools to sort by date, price, popularity, etc…
Click on any theme to open it, you can even click on LIVE PREVIEW from there to really test it out.
Pay attention to your very initial feeling/reaction: “Do I like the looks of this?” From there, take a glance at the total number of sales, ratings, etc…
The higher the sales & ratings, the better!
With 75,000,000 WordPress websites, it is extremely doubtful that you’ll come across the same theme on another website. You want more sales & ratings on your new potential theme, because that means the company or developer who built the theme is actually supporting it. If there are any issues moving forward we now have an additional support line, and even more so if we are paying for their theme… And at $19-$49 for a theme? That is extremely cheap for additional support now on our side.
Now if we find something that we are starting to like, save a link to it. Start collecting half a dozen themes that you are starting to really like the thought of for your new website.
If you are having trouble finding something you like, try going to Google and search the following:
Responsive WordPress Themes
All you need to do is start collecting links to some themes that you like.
It doesn’t matter where on the internet that they are located. From there we will dive into each theme and decide what is best for you based on the requirements needed for your website. Please reach out if you have any questions!
“Yes! After 15 years of freelancing for all types of companies, and building our own small businesses on the side, we have finally built a new website for our clients to show them all of the services that we can offer to help their business.
Helpful Website Tip in 60 Seconds: Double Check your Website Title & Description on Google
/in Website Tips /by Dustin GriceThis one tip alone can change your entire business… Start to help your website search results with this quick little tip…
Do a quick Google Search for your website… What is the exact text being displayed?
Take a look at ours below as an example…
Now think about a brand new potential customer searching for your services, who may not know anything about your business, or your business name… Would they be searching for any different terms that you are not already including? Would you add, change, or remove any specific words? Are you using the most strategic words possible based on the number of people that are actually searching for each term?
Your website title and description may be the reason new visitors are not even seeing your website…
These are some of the most important words used throughout your entire website, and should be strategically chosen with thought and research.
How To Update
This is a simple task that you can start to research yourself with a tool called Google Trends. Once you decide on your new website title and description, you can update your website by changing the “meta tags” often found in the generic “settings area” of many websites.
I’d also be more than happy to help you review all of this, and strategically decide together which title and description would be best recommended for your website, based on recent popular keyword trends.
Once we make the changes, Google will often see your updated title and description typically within a few weeks.
General Time Estimate Including Basic Keyword Research: 15-30 Minutes for completing this task, depending on how in depth we’d like to research keywords for your market, what terms are searched for the most, etc. We can do this on a call together if you’d like as well.
Simply reach out via the contact form on our website if you’d like me to take care of this for you on your website.
Hacked Website? Don’t FREAK OUT – How to Fix WordPress, HTML, PHP
/in How To, Website Management, Wordpress /by Dustin GriceFirst of all, don’t freak out. In many situations, what you are seeing is most likely worse than it actually is. Many “Hacked” websites are simply a page with random crap that is sitting on top of your actual website… Keep that in mind first.
Your 1st step is to start digging into the backend of your website. If HTML or PHP in general, go directly to your code. If you are using WordPress, log into the backend of the site as well as where all of your code is.
The 2nd step is to look around and look for anything that does not look normal. Often you might see some odd file names, see this image from BitofWP
The third step is to clean up all the extra crap that was added into your website files. Refresh your site to see if anything is back to normal, and repeat Step 2 & 3 until all clean. Browse all subdirectories as well. You need to make sure your file permissions are set correctly as well so that no one is able to do this again. You also need to make sure all of your web software is up to date so that you do not have any old outdated code that is opening a backdoor to your files.
As a worst case scenario, you can always revert to an old backup of the site, however we hope that backups have been a priority of yours in a worst case scenario and that you do indeed have a clean backup solution ready.
We can also help with all of this. Please reach out if you need any assistance with an issue like this. We are extremely responsive, and can get to a situation like this often same day.
The Best Way to Organize, Design, and Build a WordPress Website in 2020 – For Web Developers
/in How To, Wordpress /by Dustin GriceStart with a Reliable Web Host & Management
How to Technically Design & Set Up your Home Page vs EVERY OTHER PAGE, POST, etc…
Modifying your WordPress Theme
Friendly Reminders
TOP 5 Website Add-On Packages are now Available to All Clients
/in New Website Steps, Website Management, Wordpress /by Dustin GriceWe are very excited to announce our new packages for all web clients. Many of these services we have provided for many years, now fully available online:
Change My Mobile Website Text Size – Your New Priority Should Be MOBILE.
/in Mobile /by Dustin GriceReally focus and think about the users on your website… Imagine if that was you coming to your website for the first time. Look at your Analytics. What percentage of people are on mobile? If it is anywhere near half, you really need to start focusing on mobile even more than desktop.
It is very common that websites respond differently depending on the device that it is being viewed on. We use CSS Code to detect the size of the browser, and then appropriately change the size of different items on your website to make it a better experience for the user.
Please reach out if you have any questions, we would love to help!
How to Find a New WordPress Website Theme
/in How To, New Website Steps, Wordpress /by griceprojectsNow that you have chosen your new website platform, how do you start moving forward with a new theme to start working with?
Start Searching!
That is the only way to really get moving. Start looking at themes, Google searches, etc. Every theme you look at will instantly give you a positive or negative reaction. It’s either a direction you do not want to go, or a direction you would consider. The idea is to gather 3-5 different themes that you like to start narrowing everything down to one. Keep in mind, you can always change a theme, and the cost is very little compared to developing your own custom theme from complete scratch.
Where do I start searching?
First of all, you’ll want to keep your eye out for a few friendly words in general when looking at themes:
So with that in mind, we typically start with a simple search here:
Click on the image or you can also Click Here!
Hundreds of results, tools to sort by date, price, popularity, etc…
Click on any theme to open it, you can even click on LIVE PREVIEW from there to really test it out.
Pay attention to your very initial feeling/reaction: “Do I like the looks of this?” From there, take a glance at the total number of sales, ratings, etc…
The higher the sales & ratings, the better!
With 75,000,000 WordPress websites, it is extremely doubtful that you’ll come across the same theme on another website. You want more sales & ratings on your new potential theme, because that means the company or developer who built the theme is actually supporting it. If there are any issues moving forward we now have an additional support line, and even more so if we are paying for their theme… And at $19-$49 for a theme? That is extremely cheap for additional support now on our side.
Now if we find something that we are starting to like, save a link to it. Start collecting half a dozen themes that you are starting to really like the thought of for your new website.
If you are having trouble finding something you like, try going to Google and search the following:
Responsive WordPress Themes
All you need to do is start collecting links to some themes that you like.
It doesn’t matter where on the internet that they are located. From there we will dive into each theme and decide what is best for you based on the requirements needed for your website. Please reach out if you have any questions!
How often should I write a blog post?
/in Uncategorized /by Dustin GriceUntil you cannot stand it! You can never have too much content. Having said that, you want to make sure that you are creating quality content. Many websites post daily, weekly, monthly, and some even only annually if that! Some content creators even post multiple times every single day. Think of the news media website. Can they really be creating too much content? Think about the search results that they are now potentially creating with all of these daily posts…
Writing content however is no quick task, some companies specifically hire people full time to write all of their content. Great content takes great time.
When it comes down to it, it is all up to the website owner and your goals with the website. It daily content is something you want to provide, then go for it! However if you have your own travel blog website and only post when you do great trips every so often, no problem at all! It is all up to you.
Please reach out to our team if you ever have any questions about writing content, we would love to hear from you.
Is My Website Old? Do I Need a New Website? How do I know?
/in Uncategorized /by Dustin GriceThe first question to ask yourself or your company is…
When did we last do anything to our website?
A few more questions to ask yourself include:
Typically the web evolves at a rate where even after a couple years, your website can easily start to become outdated, especially if you have not updated any of the software. You are more open to hacks and issues moving forward, even if your website still looks good.
We would love to help you with this…
What The @#&$ is SEO ? Search Engine Optimization Explained
/in Uncategorized /by Dustin GriceSEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” The process of fine tuning a website and getting more traffic from the free, organic, or natural search engine results on search engines.
SEO means scanning all areas of your website, every single page, every single post, every single product, and slightly modifying content specifically with search engines in mind, to target more visitors and customers. And moving forward, continuing to create content that is even more intended for the mind of a new customer… How would a brand new customer of yours think? What would they be thinking about when they start searching for a business like yours? What would they specifically be searching to find a product or service like yours? That is the exact mindset you and/or your content writer and web developer need to think moving forward.
We would love to help you with your Search Engine Optimization. Please reach out via the contact form below, we look forward to hearing from you.
Hello world!
/in Uncategorized /by griceprojectsLeaving this only because this is a Web Dev Site! Welcome to Simple Web Help. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!