Articles to help you navigate WordPress Web Design & Maintenance

Read or listen, whatever you enjoy. Discussing, dissecting and strategising the three stages of web design.

1. Preparing for your web design project

The pre-project category exists to help you find information that is relevent to you before your project starts.

Photo of desk with text overlaid on the image saying "Are you thinking of keeping a web designer on retainer?"

Always on Call: The Perks of having a Web Designer on Retainer

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 8 minutes If you carry out any part of your business activity online, which you probably do, a web designer is going to be an essential part of your business. A harder decision is deciding whether to keep one on retainer compared to employing directly or using a random freelancer or…

How to write a web design brief

Crafting an Effective Web Design Brief: A Step-by-Step Guide

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 22 minutes You may be working on an exciting new web project, an existing website, or perhaps the next iteration of the website for your business or organisation you work with. Whichever position you find yourself in, you have realised that your project has a higher probability of success if you…

Glossary of frequently confusing or misunderstood words used by your web designer

Web Design Terminology Explained: A Comprehensive Glossary

Unfortunately in the world of web design it is true that both web designers and businesses can use terms and phrases which either mean different things to each party or which are simply not understood by the clients. My name is Paul Edwards, I am a web consultant and frontend developer based in Worthing, West…

Can you reduce web design project costs by engaging a consultant pre-project

The Double-Edged Sword: Balancing Web Design Costs and Research

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 13 minutes I have met very few clients that ‘like’ paying for research or discovery works. Essentially this is pre-project web consultancy and many people see it as lost money, money that could be spent on building the website or delivering the digital project in some real tangible way. My name…

Why does your web designer want to know how much money you have?

Behind the Numbers: The Budget Conversation in Web Design

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 10 minutes   I’m sure you have experienced it, you approach a bunch of web designers or design agencies for quotes for a website and they want to know every detail. Then the question comes where they ask you about how much money you have. You, stall, avoid the question and…

How to employ a web designer and achieve success

The Perfect Match: A Guide to Hiring Your Dream Web Designer

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 11.5 minutes Summary Finding a good web designer, developer or a competent person to maintain your website can be a difficult task. This guide contains advice which will help reduce the chance of you employing the services of an unreputable company or freelancer who isn’t up to the job. Together we…

2. Designing and building your website

This category is designed to help you find information relevent to the actual design and build portion of your new website project.

Is your website portfolio hurting your business?

Rethinking Your Website Portfolio: Is It Helping or Hurting Your Business?

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 8 minutes In a departure from the regular ‘how-to’ kind of blog posts that I write, I thought that I would (for a change) cover something about website content. Do you use your website to generate sales or enquiries? Do you have a portfolio on your website? Today we discuss: Why…

Glossary of frequently confusing or misunderstood words used by your web designer

Web Design Terminology Explained: A Comprehensive Glossary

Unfortunately in the world of web design it is true that both web designers and businesses can use terms and phrases which either mean different things to each party or which are simply not understood by the clients. My name is Paul Edwards, I am a web consultant and frontend developer based in Worthing, West…

5 ways to keep your web designer happy (and productive)

Harmony in Design: Five Ways to a Happier and Productive Web Designer

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 15 minutes   My name is Paul Edwards, I am a Web Consultant and Frontend Developer and I’ve been working in the web industry since 2005. Every day somewhere in the web industry projects fail, clients get unhappy and web designers get mistreated. So, lets have a look at 5 ways…

3. Website aftercare and improvement

When your new website goes live, the work doesnt stop. Your website will need ongoing care, updates, maintenance and iterative improvement to ensure it keeps delivering against your goals.

Blog header image showing a manual typewriter with the word 'WordPress' in type behind a title saying 'The big WordPress maintenance experiment - 3 month review'.

The Three-Month Verdict: Lessons from Our WordPress Maintenance Experiment

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 9 minutes A little over 3 months ago I set up a test website with no intention of maintaining it. I posed the question, “Will it get hacked? Will it end up selling dodgy pharmaceuticals or will it just soldier on forever?”. Now, 3 months on, I’ve got another update with…

Photo of old style typewriter with the word "WordPress" typed onto the paper. Image overlaid with the text "The big WordPress maintenance experiment. 2 Months Review"

Two Months In: Unraveling the Mysteries of WordPress Maintenance

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 13 minutes A little over 2 months ago I set up a test website with no intention of maintaining it. I posed the question, “Will it get hacked? Will it end up selling dodgy pharmaceuticals or will it just soldier on forever?”. Now, 2 months on, I’ve got some data and…

Photo of desk with text overlaid on the image saying "Are you thinking of keeping a web designer on retainer?"

Always on Call: The Perks of having a Web Designer on Retainer

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 8 minutes If you carry out any part of your business activity online, which you probably do, a web designer is going to be an essential part of your business. A harder decision is deciding whether to keep one on retainer compared to employing directly or using a random freelancer or…

The big wordpress maintenance experiment. Let's find out the truth.

The big WordPress maintenance experiment: Let’s find out the truth

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 7 minutes I’ve set up a test website with no intention of maintaining it. Will it get hacked? Will it end up selling dodgy pharmaceuticals or will it just soldier on forever? My name is Paul Edwards, I am a Web Consultant and Frontend Developer and I’ve been working in the…

Glossary of frequently confusing or misunderstood words used by your web designer

Web Design Terminology Explained: A Comprehensive Glossary

Unfortunately in the world of web design it is true that both web designers and businesses can use terms and phrases which either mean different things to each party or which are simply not understood by the clients. My name is Paul Edwards, I am a web consultant and frontend developer based in Worthing, West…

Do you do these 10 things during website maintenance?

The Maintenance Decalogue: Ten Commandments for a Healthy WordPress Website

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 6 minutes You already know that it is essential to keep your website maintained so I won’t go into depth here about why website maintenance is important. What you may not know however is what kind of activities you should be carrying out when you maintain your site. My name is…

Why you should routinely purge data from your website

Running websites: Why you need to routinely purge data from your website

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 6 minutes It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that once your website is running that there is nothing else to do… I’m sure are aware of GDPR by now and that it puts responsability upon you to responsibly ask for, store and purge personal and sensitive personal…

What's the lifespan of your new website? (and how to extend it)

From Birth to Beyond: The Life Cycle of a Modern Website

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 9 minutes So, you have a lovely new website, fantastic, but do you know how long it will be useful for? In this post we will discuss how long a website can be effective for before it needs some kind of substantial work being carried out. For those of you already…

What does it actually cost to run a website?

Understanding the True Costs of Running a Website

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 14 minutes If you run a website or are planning on bulding one, have you been asking yourself this question? How much should I budget for running my website each month? My name is Paul Edwards, I am a Web Consultant and Frontend Developer and I’ve been working in the web…

Why you need a maintenance plan for your wordpress website

Guarding the Fortress: Why Your WordPress Site Needs a Maintenance Plan

WordPress typically makes it incredibly fast and straightforward to launch and manage a website, whether you are creating an internet portfolio, an e-commerce website, or using WordPress to build sites for your clients, the WordPress platform and the huge community that use and support it, has got your back. There are very good reasons for…

Why you need a maintenance plan for your wordpress website

The Evergreen Challenge: Keeping Your WordPress Website in Tip-Top Shape

Content management systems make managing our websites and their content much easier. These content management systems are continuously updated to add new features, make them faster, remove bugs and improve security when vulnerabilities are found. By maintaining your WordPress website and its plugins updated you remove known vulnerabilities which make it harder for people to…

12 simple steps to bulletproof wordpress backups

Safety Nets: Crafting the Ultimate WordPress Backup Strategy

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 22 minutes I think you’ll agree with me when I say: It’s very hard to have 100% confidence in your wordpress backups. To know absolutely that if anything goes wrong, at any time, that your safe. But it doesn’t have to be that way. This guide gives you 12 simple steps…

Are you unsure about how frequently you should maintain your website?

Determining the Ideal Frequency for Website Updates and Maintenance

Are you unsure about how frequently you should maintain your website? The simple answer is that the more frequent you can backup and update your website the better. However, I know that you don’t have unlimited time and that your business has other priorities, which is the first argument for outsourcing your website maintenance. Not…

Your website has gone live. What happens now?

After Your Website Goes Live: The Essential Next Steps

Fantastic, you have collaborated with your appointed web designer (possibly even us), created your content and your site has gone live and is viewable by the public. What happens now? The next steps will depend on what services you paid your web designer (or another third party) to carry out on your behalf but the…

Everything else....

Uncategorised content lives here.

How to prepare your website for Christmas

Deck the Digital Halls: Gearing Up Your Website for Festive Times

Blog Audio: 3 minutes Just like that, Christmas is almost upon us. If you’re planning on closing your business for Christmas (I really hope you are), there are a few things you could do to make sure your company website is all set for the holiday season. My name is Paul Edwards, I am a…

Industry conferences: Why you are a fool if you dont go (and what youre missing if you dont)

Beyond the Desk: The Magic of WordCamp and Industry Gatherings

Blog Audio: Read/listen time: 8 minutes My name is Paul Edwards, I am a Web Consultant and Frontend Developer and I’ve been working in the web industry since 2005. The evening before Wordcamp Brighton 2019 I started to write this blog post to explore the reasons why YOU might want to go to a WordCamp…

The great WordPress maintenance experiment: Let’s find out the truth!

I’ve set up a test website with no intention of maintaining it.
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