Design & features

When we say a website is "linked to social media" like those two, there are several things we could mean.

Firstly, we could mean that we have little text links or icons or buttons that point to our social media pages, so when you click on one of them, it opens for example your Facebook page in a new tab. We usually put these links links our site's footer (at the bottom of every page) or header (at the top).

Second, we could be talking about "Share this" buttons on our blog posts, products, etc. When some clicks one of these, they are taken to a share screen in the social media site, for them to some context before sharing it to their followers.

Lastly, we could mean that we've embedded social media "streams" (lists of posts) in one of our webpages - usually the Home page. These streams show the latest posts from our social pages, and get updated automatically every time you visit that page. these used to be very common, but have lost their popularity because it's not clear how they help websites, and because their appearance often clashes with the rest of website's design.

So which of these would you like your website to have? Let us know.

It's become very easy to sell products online these days, with so much great software built to make it easy to do. This is especially true if your website is built using an ecommerce-focussed-platform like Shopify, or is built with WordPress with its WooCommerce plugin system.

Even if your site isn't built with an ecommerce site already, chances are, it can still be added. Almost all website-building software these days has an ecommerce system or plugin you could use, however it might require a large additional cost to set up and use monthly.

If you aren't sure if your site is built with ecommerce in mind, get in touch with us to figure out the best way forward.

Yes of course; it's actually fairly easy to add videos to a website. The simplest way is to create a YouTube (or Vimeo) account for your business, upload the videos to the account, then send links to these videos to your web developer. The web developer will then "embed them" (put them into) your website in the right places.

If you really don't want to use a public video site like YouTube, you might be able to upload your videos to your website directly. While this does mean your videos are kept in the same place as your website, it does come with several downsides such as your video only showing in one resolution (the size or quality of the video), meaning that it'll either be too large for customers using their phones, or too low-quality for customers using their desktop computers.

If you're like to add a video to your website, contact us to show you how.

A website that works well on all devices - including tablets and phones - and in all circumstances - eg. outdoors - is called a responsive website.

Almost every website that is built these days is designed and built responsively, but not always very well. A question you should definitely ask your web designer is "When you design the site, will you include a version in the design for laptops / desktop computers and phones? And how about other devices like tablets?"

And before your website goes like, make sure that you and the website developers test the new site thoroughly on popular devices - such as popular phones like the latest Samsung Galaxy and an iPhone - as well as in different browsers - such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari.

So when it comes to websites being responsive, it's no longer a question of "if it is", it's a question of "how well it is".

Almost all software that we use to make websites these days provides a way to log in and edit the content of your website - the text, images, videos.

Two of the most popular tools that allow you to log in and edit are WordPress and Drupal. These are called content management systems (CMSs). If your site is built in one of these, it should be easy to log in and edit any type of content, webpages, posts, events, team members, etc. If it isn't easy, then your web developer hasn't done a good job making it easy for you.

The same is true for ecommerce software like Shopify, which makes it super easy to edit products, categories, info pages, and so on when you're logged in.

And if your site is built using a drag-and-drop visual site builder like Wix, SquareSpace or Webflow, you will be able to log in and edit the content of the site, though it might be a lot more difficult to do it without breaking anything than if it was built with one of the CMSs.

There is a category of websites that don't have any sort of log-in-to-edit functionality; we call these custom-built websites. They're usually built from scratch specifically for your needs using code. In exchange for losing the ability to edit content yourself, the website could be much cheaper to build, or just much more powerful and unique.

If you'd like to know how to edit the content of your site, just ask us.

If you're not the biggest fish in your pond, chances are good that at least one of your competitors has a great website. And just like anything else in life, it's always okay to be inspired by your competitors, and to learn from them, but not simply copy what they have.

A few examples of things you should learn from your competitor's websites include, which pages they have on their site, which sections they have on their home page and other key pages (but don't assume that they've included all the important sections!), how they talk about what they do (their communication style), and any useful features, (a wish list for example), that their websites have.

Your website shouldn't look or feel like any of your competitors websites of course, not just because it's wrong to copy, but also because it's important for your customers to see and learn your particular style and brand. But it's always wise to learn from those who have previous experience.

We always recommend looking at competitors' websites, making notes of what your website can have and how it could "feel" to visitors, then discussing your ideas with your website designer.

If you'd like us to take you through this process please contact us to schedule an appointment with you. We meet with our clients either virtually or in person and agree on an hourly fee upfront.

The words "clean" and "simple" come up in nearly every single meeting and workshop when website design is discussed. Everyone wants their website to be both of these. So if everyone wants them, what do they really mean?

If you look at pictures of websites from 20 years ago, when the internet was still new, it's fascinating to see how complicated they often were, with so much small text all competing for your attention. They were designed that way because we didn't know what was really important for websites, so we didn't know what to emphasise, and what to hide or cut.

These days, websites are often much simpler, partly because we now have a much better idea of what's important to show our customers and what isn't, but also because of how often we browse sites on our phones, which require simpler layouts and less text.

So to have a website that's really clean and simple, we need to ask ourselves marketing-related questions like "What do my customers know and expect? What do I want them to do on my site? And what should we emphasise?" With that in mind, work with your designer to prioritise the parts of the site that will best achieve your goals, and hide or cut the rest. Then make sure that what's left is consistent and matches your brand's style.

If you'd you like to have a simple and clean website designed for your business or organisation, get in touch with us to discuss it.