Orange County Website Design

This post was inspired by the 37singals.com Browser Troubleshooting page.

After we’ve invested much blood, sweat and tears into designing and building websites, when we turn it over to our client for review, we often receive some very strange responses. Anything from “The text looks fuzzy” to “When I click that image, the whole site disappears!” Believe me, we’ve had some jaw dropping responses, which result in “we’re-not-seeing-that” emails back and forth with screenshots attached for proof!

Yes, crazy, I know. Especially considering the fact that prior to turning it over, we’ve spent time testing the site in numerous browsers, making sure it works and looks right.

What we’ve found in almost every case, is that the problem is caused by the saved cache in our client’s web browser; and that clearing the cache resolves all issues, almost every time.

So… having stumbled on the post I referenced from 37signals.com, I decided to write a post offering possible solutions to our clients, which will hopefully result in much time saved, and less frustration from both parties.

If Your New Website Looks Funny, Try These Possible Solutions:

Try this first, and if the site is still showing a green background with pink dots, let us know. Maybe we’ve really goofed! But chances are, clearing your cache will do the trick!

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We’re currently working on the “Official/Unofficial” fan website for Academy Award winning actor Christoph Waltz. The website is currently run by Sachertorte, who reached out to us saying they were in need of a complete redesign.

Christoph will be appearing in the new Quentin Tarantino movie, Django Unchained, due out in December 2012. Being fans of both Waltz and Tarantino, we jumped at the opportunity to work on the site. According to IMDB, the new film stars Jamie Foxx, Don Johnson and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The new site is set to launch in June 2012. You can see a “sneak peak” of the new design above.

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Born with the gift of writing? Congratulations, you are one of the lucky few. For the rest of the world, copywriting is a tedious job. For that reason, we’ve decided to introduce professional copywriting services. Our web writing services give you the content you need to succeed. We provide professional and affordable writing and editing to support your website, blog and social media. Our copywriters have worked for some of the biggest names in business, now you can benefit from great writing at a price that won’t break your budget.

You have only 2-3 seconds to convince a website visitor to stay at your site. Successful companies know that even the most elaborate website needs great writing in order to convert that visitor into a client.

Service includes:

• Writing tailored to tell your story and focus on your key messages
• Consultation on keywords and phrases that search engines love
• Editing existing content or reworking your existing site so it sings
• One time or ongoing editorial services to keep your content fresh
• Web-savvy content with a strong call to action

In today’s hyper-connected, info-intense world, what you say and how you say it can dramatically influence your bottom-line success. With our web writing services you can keep your online presence fresh and your search engine rankings high with professionally written content that’s error-free, easy to read, and relevant to your audience.

Let our professional writers promote your expertise while you concentrate on running your business. Contact us to learn more or request a quote.

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Having designed and built many WordPress websites, we have found that once the new site is handed off to our client, the one thing that is neglected the most is the task of backing up and updating WordPress.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve logged into a site to find an extremely old version of WordPress running, and multiple outdated plugins. I also see no evidence of the site being backed up.

Backing up your local hard drive on your computer is no different in concept to backing up your website. If your hard drive crashes, at least you have a backup. Now, it may not crash too often, but the reason you backup your files, is for that one time that it does. It’s like an insurance policy.

The same applies to backing up a website. It’s odd that we will invest thousands of dollars on a quality website, spend hours upon hours adding and updating content, but very little thought is given to securing the site in the event of a disaster.

The Reasons We Neglect This Important Step

From what I’ve found in working with clients over the years, the main reason WordPress sites aren’t backed up effectively is due to a lack of the necessary technical knowledge required to make effective backups. It isn’t just the WordPress database that needs to get backed up, and taking it a step further, even if WordPress is backed up, few will know how to restore the site.

WordPress Updates

Another often neglected area is that of keeping WordPress updated. New versions are released on a regular basis. Not only are there feature updates, but security updates too. So it is important to update WordPress to each new version in order to keep your site as secure as can be at the time.

The WordPress Maintenance Program

I created this program to take the hassle out of the update, backup and restoration process. I see this as an “insurance policy” for your WordPress website. Hopefully nothing will go wrong with it, but in the event that something does happen, you are protected in the sense that we will have weekly off-site backups of the website, and will restore it to the original state prior to the data loss.

We also keep WordPress, plugins and theme files updated when new versions are released. If an update breaks the site for some reason, we will fix it. All this is included in the plan.

It’s Not For Everyone

It is important to take the necessary steps to backup the entire website, not just the WordPress database. So too should WordPress be updated regularly, and it is also important to know how to restore the site when needed.

If you are handling this process yourself, then there is no need to sign up for the program. The program is mainly for those of you who don’t know how to backup and restore a WordPress website and/or don’t want to hassle with it.

To find out more, visit the WordPress Maintenance Program page.

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