How Often Should I Update My Website?

Websites are like the fashion industry. Fashion trends change from season to season and your website needs to keep up with the trends. A website that looked modern and fresh a few years ago can easily look out of date today.​

For instance, with Google’s mobile search focused on responsive websites, our client Time for Travel came to us and asked us to switch their design from “mobile friendly” to responsive. Responsive design is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes. They wanted to display beautiful images of travel while their customers could navigate the full functionality of the site.

The most important factor is deciding if your website needs replacing is the overall look and feel of it. Some websites are informational and once the words or pictures are updated, the site still provides the look you are trying to achieve.

Other factors that may indicate it’s time for a website upgrade or replacement are:

• Out-of-date security measures
• Your site isn’t responsive to different sized screens
• Low-quality SEO
• Any of your content is out of date
• You want to add an online store
• You don’t have any clear Call to Action
• Unclear navigation
• Slow loading times
• You want to add any kind of integration, such as a newsletter signup

If any of these factors resonate with you, I’d be happy to chat and see how we can make your website reflect who you are today. As always, if your website is icky, call Rikki! (443) 871-9227.

How Do We Compare Against the Competition?

How Does WebSolutions Compare Against

WordPress, GoDaddy, and Wix.com?

Webgirl Technology has been using WebSolutions by maWebCenters to develop websites since 2009. We choose this technology over others for several reasons. Through the years, our customers have moved from platforms including WordPress, GoDaddy, Wix, and others. So, we felt it would be helpful to provide a thorough snapshot through the following Web Services Competitive Analysis.

Click her to download our Competitive Analysis. And, as always, if your website is icky, call Rikki!

Introducing Website Effects and Demo Mode

Webgirl Technology partners with websolutions by maWebCenters for web design. We are very happy to announce the release of a new set of features that will be sure to spice up your website and make editing a breeze.

Our first new feature is called Website Effects and as you’ve probably guessed, this feature adds special effects to your website.  You can add them to all the different widgets your site is comprised of.  You can even combine effects for more advanced ways that your website will attract visitors.

Effects List

Below is your handy dandy cheat sheet on the various effects and what they do:

Background Parallax – Move the background image from one spot to another while scrolling.

Bounce – Bounce a widget in a specific direction.

Fade In – Fade a widget into view.

Fade Out – Fade a widget out of view.

Fold In – Fold a widget into view.

Fold Out – Fold a widget out of view.

Move By – Move a widget by a specific amount of pixels (to the right/left and/or down/up).

Move To – Move a widget to a specific position on the page.

Pin – Pin a widget to the top of the page once the widget has been scrolled to the top.

Puff – Expand and fade a widget out of view.

Pulsate – Fade a widget out and back in a specific number of times.

Rotate – Rotate a widget.

Scale – Resize a widget by a specific amount.

Shake – Shake a widget in a specific direction.

Slide In – Slide a widget into view.

Slide Out – Slide a widget out of view.

Text Slide In – Slide text line-by-line into view. Note: this effect is designed to work with similarly formatted text (and not images, links, etc.)

Text Slide Out – Slide text line-by-line out of view. Note: this effect is designed to work with similarly formatted text (and not images, links, etc.)

Text Tango – Splits up and dances text within a widget. Note: this effect is designed to work with similarly formatted text (and not images, links, etc.)

Tilt – Tilt a widget

Effects Settings

Not only can you apply effects to your site now, but you can also adjust the finer points of how they transition, where they end up on the page and so much more.  Below are a few other important aspects of effects that you’ll want to learn:

Status – Determines if the effect you have chosen will be displayed or not.

Direction – Determines the direction that the effect will take place in.  You can try using negative values to have effects go in the opposite direction as well.

Bring to Front – Displays the effect in front of other page content.

Transition Effect – Secondary effect that occurs at the Start and/or the End of the main effect’s duration.

Trigger On – Action on which effect is triggered.  Depending on the effect you have chosen, options can include on hover, when top of widget is visible or when bottom of widget is visible.

Duration – Duration of time that effect takes place during.

Demo Mode

Lastly, we are proud to present the newly created Demo mode.  In the past, if you wanted to see how your site would look and function exactly as it would when it went live, you had to either Preview or Publish your site.  That is no longer the case.  All you need to do is make whatever website edits you want and click “Demo” in the top bar and your website will appear exactly as it would if you were to publish it.  This gives you an instantaneous view of your site, without the need to go through the whole Publish process.  This will dramatically improve ease of use and time it takes to develop your website.

We’ve been working very hard to provide these wonderful new features and we hope you enjoy using them, as much as we enjoyed developing them.

If you have any questions about Website Effects, Demo Mode or any other features that we offer, please do not hesitate to email me Rikki@webgirltech.com or call me at (443) 871-9227.

If you’d like to check out some of the effects in action, feel free to check out this new demo site at www.sampleeffects.com. Remember, if your website is icky, call Rikki! ™

New Responsive Design, Website Management, SEO Opportunities!

Webgirl Technology is proud to announce a huge number of recent improvements that will improve the functionality, look and usability of your Web presence. Take advantage of these advances in technology to effectively engage the growing number of potential customers using mobile devices, and to streamline your ecommerce capabilities so it’s easier than ever for consumers to buy from you online.

Responsive Websites
Responsive Websites are scalable sites that automatically adjust their usability and width no matter whether a visitor is using a PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

The result is that there is no longer a need to create separate sites for PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. A single site can be created, enhanced and updated. Concerns about keeping PC and mobile websites updated and looking consistent are eliminated. Instead, you can spend your time focusing on your business.

Search engine optimization concerns related to maintaining multiple websites for PCs and mobile devices are eliminated. It’s just one more way we’ll help your business rank high on search results from websites like Google.

Recent Platform Enhancements – Better Than Ever

• New system enhancements include Google Fonts capability. Google Fonts are free, boast hundreds of choices, are very Web-friendly, and are easy to use. But perhaps most importantly, you can use Google fonts to make your business website look totally unique.
• Many great-looking, new responsive website designs are now available. Some are free, and others are available at a reasonable cost. Take advantage of this opportunity to launch a brand new business website or redesign your existing site with a fresh look.
• The new Slick HTML5 slideshow allows you to show images of your business or products to potential customers in ways that you never imagined possible.
• The new site area override feature allows you to customize each page of your website in any way you desire. Your existing and potential customers will be impressed.
• Do you use Chrome or Safari at your business? Our new system supports these popular browsers, in addition to Internet Explorer and Firefox. Most importantly, you can edit your website on any device.

Google AdWords Campaign Management
Internet marketing is taken to the next level by the knowledge and years of experience of our specialists.

Search engine giant Google offers its paid AdWords service to businesses who wish to enhance their Internet marketing efforts. Our SEO specialists guide clients through the AdWords process, taking care of subjects like account creation, campaigns, budgets, networks, mobile device targeting, geographical targeting and much much more.
We provide the client with monthly report detailing results. And each month we handle adjustments in strategy to make sure Google AdWords investments consistently bring results.

Content Development
No content? No problem.

A member of our content development staff will contact you at your convenience. We’ll talk to you over the phone or via email.

We’ll ask you to send any brochures, advertisements, or other marketing material. Don’t worry if it’s outdated. We’ll update everything so that it’s effective today and into the future.

We will present you with a draft of the content we have developed, then ask you if you have any comments, questions, additions, or deletions. Our goal is an end-product content collection that makes your business look good. Only when you approve, will we publish anything on the Internet.
And we do it all at a reasonable cost.

Social Media
Is your competition interacting with consumers over Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking services? You can too.

Our solution helps you build a long list of Facebook “likes” and Twitter “followers.”

There are billions of people around the world using social media sites, and there’s no reason that you can’t use this valuable communication channel to increase your sales, revenue, or foot traffic. We’ll eliminate all of the mystery by doing it for you!

Stop waiting for customers to come to you, and take advantage of this service to reach out and engage them first.

Online Reputation Management
Consumer review websites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and many more are increasingly being used by potential customers who are trying to decide if a product or service is right for their time and money.
A business has two choices. It can either hope for good luck and the absence of negative reviews, or it can take advantage of the online reputation management services offered by Webgirl Technology.
Our online reputation management services include a monthly scan of the online world for negative reviews, and clear reporting of activity on consumer review sites that could affect revenue, profits and foot traffic.

Once the situation is assessed, our reputation management specialists can initiate suppression campaigns, launch targeted SEO campaigns, and take advantage of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to enhance the reputation of a business.

Active response to negative reviews, and other cutting-edge online reputation management best practice procedures can help facilitate positive reviews about your business in the future. The more content we can get out there that you manage can help to work for you, rather than against you, like many of the services are doing currently.

Local or Regional Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, ensures your business ranks high on search engines like Google and Yahoo when a consumer is looking for a specific product or service.
SEO is a complex, always-changing science. But the specialists at Webgirl Technology have been providing effective SEO services to clients from the earliest days of the practice.

We’ll call you to discuss your desired goals related to your website, the geographic areas you wish to reach, and the demographics of your desired customer. Our specialists take it from there. We conduct SEO tasks related to site keywords, page titles, headings, page descriptions, and many more ways to make you stand out from the crowd.

What Else ?
You’ll be able to create and administer your own custom Internet marketing campaigns targeting the specific groups of recipients that you choose. The User Interface has been enhanced with time and click-saving features to make all of your editing needs easier and faster.

Blogging continues to take off, and our solution allows the user to tap into the power of WordPress, a leading tool for blogging and customer interaction.

Managed Monthly Membership
Have you ever had a brilliant idea for your site but just couldn’t figure out how to get it online? Ever get frustrated with technology? Lack the spare time to update your Web presence regularly?
No worries, we have a great new option for you. Our new Managed Monthly Membership option allows you to dictate a list of changes each month to one of our agents and they will customize your site for you.

That’s right, no longer do you have to figure it out or do it on your own. We’ll take that burden off of your shoulders, so you can focus on your business. Contact us today to find out how you can upgrade to this great new time-saving service!

Remember, if your website is icky, call Rikki!

(443) 871-9227

www.webgirltech.com