Hello folks, I am taking an opportunity to do a long overdue website revamp of this website. It was one of the first sites I created and has had some work done on it, it was lagging too far behind. I got tired of apologizing for it, and of it being like the proverbial cobbler’s kid having no shoes. I would love to have unveiled a new site, perfect day one, but I decided it might be more fun to be transparent and open about the process.
This site was created a while ago using a now old theme* that when the theme developer upgraded it to a newer version a few years ago – they left no easy upgrade path for those who bought in early. It annoyed me, but the site looked ok. Nothing fancy. But as WordPress and newer themes have been moving forward, with lots of new options, and as a part of my business has become WordPress Web Design for others, I decide to bite the bullet. And as I tell my clients, always keep your WordPress software, themes and plugins up to date. That was getting harder to do here. So I’m creating a temporary site today and will evolve a new one over the coming weeks. I may be experimenting with a few different themes. So my site may look different if you happen to stop back at a mid-point.
This is phase I
Updates in the Background:
- WordPress software – fully updated
- New Mobile-Responsive Theme*
- Plugins updated
- Old not-current Plugins deleted
Visible Upgrades
- A new fresher theme, simpler, more streamlined
- A new header image
- A simpler headline and tagline in the header – probably not finalized
*Self-hosted WordPress is the software I use for my websites, which is very versatile. A part of its versatility is that it comes in different…flavors. I often say that WordPress comes “dressed in jeans and a t-shirt,” which is not necessarily how you want to present your business to the world. So they created the concept of Themes. Themes are coding written by WordPress or other developers which allows your site to have a different look and feel, a business suit or casual Friday attire – whatever fits your business – as well as to provide greater functionality. Another analogy is WordPress is the engine of your website, but the theme is the make and model, which also allows for customization of the site’s both look and functionality – just like a car.
**Part of what spurred this update was that Google is beginning to downgrade websites in their search results that are not “mobile responsive” or in other words not easy to read on a cell phone or tablet. Sites that don’t pass their test for adapting to the size of the device being used to read it will show up lower in search engines. My old theme was not mobile-responsive, i.e. the current these will adapt to the size of the screen that the viewer is using.
Wish me luck!
