In my quest to learn more about search engine optimization (SEO), I came across some interesting info regarding h tags. H tags are the headline tags that are used when creating content for your website. They are not to be confused with the header of your website (the area that typically houses your logo/wordmark and your navigation). These are the headlines that draw your users to the page.

When using WordPress, you have the option of selecting all the available HMTL headline tags, H1-H6. Some platforms, like Squarespace or even MailChimp and other email marketing platforms, only offer H1-H3 or maybe H1-H4 out of the box. Those selections tend to be fine because how often do you really need to use allll of those headlines styles anyway? H5 and H6? Meh. BUT, there are also other reasons to consider using them, beyond design aesthetic and style. We’ll get to that in a minute.

When Google was first coming into its own, the number associated with that h tag was an indicator as to the importance of the content within the tags. Meaning, H1 told Google that the content within the tag was the most important, whereas content within an H6 was not as important. Google also used the content within the h tags to look for keywords for which that page should rank.

But as Google has evolved, this is no longer the case.

How Google (and other search engines) use h tags

Google and other search engines are now more focused on the content as a whole, and no longer looking only at the content within the h tags to figure out how to rank that page. According to Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller, Google is ranking content not keywords. The number associated with an h tag no longer indicates its importance. H1 can be just as important as H6, because Google is using these headlines to better understand the content and structure of the page. However, those h tags are not the only factor that Google considers when determining page content (and thus, SERP ranking).

Importance of H Tags

So here’s the rub: while Google may not discern H1 from H2 in terms of importance, those different headlines are used as clues to the structure of your content and to help visitors better understand your content. They also serve as a guide to those users with visual impairments or those using screen reader technologies. H tags suddenly provide a road map as to the page content for those users. It’s not only best practice to keep h tags in an ordered hierarchy, but also a factor in keeping your website ADA-compliant. For example, content within an H1 tag should not be immediately followed by content in an H3 tag (because you’ve skipped H2).

Final Thoughts on H Tags

Use headlines (and subheadlines) to call out a synopsis of what that chunk of content is all about because ultimately, it’s best to structure your content in a way that will serve your readers. They will spend time on your site reading the content and Google will recognize and reward that.

The post How to Use H Tags for Headings appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

We were so grateful to celebrate with family last weekend— the first family party since Christmas 2019! Enjoy a few snaps from the festivities celebrating our sweet hurricane.

Tonight, we will have one of her favorite dinners (garlic shrimp and veggies) and maybe take a walk to get birthday fro-yo since we already did cake. There will be a few more presents to open and probably late bedtime as we spend the evening wishing time would slow down… just for a while.

The post Baby No More appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

What is a WordPress plugin?

Simply put, a WordPress plugin a chunk of code that will extend the functionality or add features to your website. Plugins come in all shapes and sizes, including those that add social sharing, contact forms, e-commerce capabilities and much, much more. If you decide your website needs to operate in a certain manner, often times a plugin is the answer. And there are tons of them out there- some free, some paid or some a variation of both (free, but with basic features until you upgrade to get the geography functionality). So how do you know which to choose?

Ah, fear not! Read on…

Picking the right tool for the job: what to look for in a WordPress plugin

Once you know what you need the plugin to do or what feature it will bring to the table, it’s important to consider a few factors before installing it on your WordPress website.

Site Speed

Plugins by nature add more code to your site, which will create more server and database requests and to function. That will directly impact the speed of your website. To determine a plugin’s resource needs, you can look to websites like Pingdom or GTMetrix, which will show you which specific files (and thus, which plugins) are hogging all of your resources.

Edit (August 2021): I recently received an unsolicited email from Janis at Experte.com in which he saw this post and my mentioning of the above site speed tools. He (rightfully) brought up the point that these sites only check one URL at a time and not the whole website (quite frustrating). To that end, he developed a free tool that allows for a full site scan and scores the page in the same way as Google PageSpeed Insights. He asked that I play around with it and, if I liked it, to add it to this post. I did test it out a bit and it’s a great resource! Check out which specific pages within your site might be slowing things down using his tool at Experte.com. For the record, this is not sponsored or anything, he just asked me to check it out and let him know my thoughts. Give it a try!

The most frequent page speed killers are poor code and excessive media file sizes, so if you are installing a poorly-coded plugin, your server will have to work extra hard and you’ll notice it in terms of load times.

Which brings me to another important item to consider:

Active Plugin Support

When selecting a plugin, make sure that it is supported. This means that it has been updated fairly recently (I typically look to see if a plugin has been updated within the last couple of months). It’s an important factor because you need to know that plugin is compatible with the most recent version of your WordPress installation and PHP version. PHP is the language on which WordPress is built, and version control is typically handled by your hosting company, so if that is a foreign term, don’t worry too much. When incompatibilities arise, they can vary in nature, from the simple (the plugin just doesn’t function as intended) to extreme (activating the plugin disabled your dashboard access). It’s important to always have a recent backup available in case you need to restore your site to a previous version.

Ratings and Reviews

Take the time to read through the reviews and look at the ratings that a plugin has received. The WordPress Plugin Repository makes this easy with their star ratings system and review section, which are both very visible on the plugin’s download page. If you are considering a plugin from another source, make sure it’s reputable and do a quick Google search to see what others had to say.

Developer Credibility

The WP Repository does a pretty good job of vetting plugins they offer for download, but it’s important to do your due diligence and make sure the developer behind the plugin is reputable, especially when looking to install a plugin from outside the repository. Other marketplace websites offering WordPress plugins, like Envato and others, have some credibility behind them, but it’s important to consider the source. When determining credibility, there are some clues that will help: is the developer active on the support forums they (or WordPress) provide? Do they have any other plugins available? Sometimes, they may offer a new plugin, so the ratings or reviews may not be there, but you can see from their past plugins that they are active in the world of WordPress. I’d be more likely to take a chance on those than someone totally unknown.

Paid vs Free Plugins

All of the plugins in the WordPress repository are free to download, though many of them offer a paid premium (“freemium”) version through their own websites or other marketplaces. When trying to determine if a paid plugin is worth it, think about what you need it to do, what type of budget you have and how much support you think you may need.

Let’s talk money

Depending on your budget, it might make sense to find a free alternative and not spring for the paid version. The free version might not be the ideal situation, but you can typically find a free option that will get you close. It might be just enough to get you off the ground until you can really ramp up your efforts and then look at a paid plugin option. On the other hand, if the paid functionality is something critical to your site or something that will drive sales, then it’s probably worth making the investment and buying the paid plugin.

Do you need specific functionality?

Many times, the reason a plugin is premium and not free is that it offers specific features. The best approach is to create a list of what you want the plugin to do. Then shop around a bit and see if a particular plugin checks most, if not all, of the boxes. Generally speaking, free plugins often provide basic functionality, while the premium versions offer more specific features and more flexibility. If you have a need for something specific or a very particular functionality, you may often find a paid plugin is the best (and possibly only) solution.

How much support might you need?

Free plugins often have community forums where you can ask questions or get help troubleshooting, but one of the big benefits of a paid plugin is that you usually have better access to support from the developer. While a community of help is nice, it’s even better when the solution you need can come quickly and from someone who knows the plugin inside and out. Paid plugins are usually sold with two pricing models for licensing: a recurring fee or a lifetime subscription, but it’s important to review what type of support comes with each. If the plugin you need to purchase offers specific functionality or something rather niche, you may find yourself needing more guidance. You’ll want to make sure you have access to responsive support.

Conclusion

It’s important to be mindful when selecting a WordPress plugin for installation on your website. Plugins can often affect many aspects behind the scenes, as well as provide the needed functionality. Think about site speed, the source of the plugin and its maintenance schedule before activating it on your website. Depending on how specific you need the features to be, you may want to consider a paid option as well, but above all else, make sure to run a complete backup before install any WordPress plugin. It’s important to be able to roll back if the plugin breaks something, or if you just decide you don’t want that functionality any longer. A site backup will prove invaluable in a multitude of scenarios and is always worth it.

The post How to Select a WordPress Plugin appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

Have you ever thought about how links affect your SEO? When someone links to your website from theirs, it indicates to search engines that you have some relevant content. Likewise, when you link out, whether the URL is internal or elsewhere, you’re giving the search engine a heads up that the content you have on your site is valuable. Thus, you get a little link juice going for you.

But do you ever check your website for broken links?

Why Broken Links Are Bad

While linking to other resources and content is wise and can help your SEO, the inverse is true as well. Aside from aggravating your users by sending them to a page that doesn’t exist, these broken links can also hurt the validity of your site and content. To be clear, it’s not like fixing all the broken links on your site will magically make your website appear at the top of the search rankings. However, link health is a part of overall site health, which is definitely a factor in the metrics that are used when ranking your site. Plus, it’s something easily fixed.

How to Find Broken Links

So how do you check for broken links? Well, there are a number of tools, some free and some paid. If you’re just getting started, take a look at Screaming Frog, which allows you to scan up to 500 links in your site for free. Premium services like SEMRush also search for broken links, but their hefty price tag is only worth it if you take advantage of their other services.

So what do you do?

I highly recommend connecting your website to Google Search Console. It will give you a plethora of information about your site health for free. If you are already connected, navigate to your property in Console and go to Console→Excluded, and check out the list for 4xx error codes. If you have a website insurance plan with me, you get weekly reports emailed directly to your inbox, making it that much easier to know what needs attention.

A quick word of caution if you’re thinking about a broken link checker plugin for WordPress: these types of plugins are notorious resource hogs. Running that type of scan on your hosting platform will inevitably slow down your website. It’s the main reason I recommend one of the methods above. You get the same report without the performance strain on your website.

How to Fix Broken Links

Fixing Internal Links

If the broken links you’ve found are within your site, think about whether or not redirecting the old content to new content makes sense. Don’t just redirect to avoid a 404 not found error. If you have an old ‘about’ page that was available via the about URL, and your new ‘about’ URL is about-me, a redirect makes total sense. Redirecting your old ‘about’ page to your contact page makes less sense.

If a redirect doesn’t make sense, the next course of action is to make sure the broken page isn’t linked anywhere else within your site. This could be in the form of an old blog post that linked to broken content, or a broken link in a menu item, etc. Exclude the broken link from your site map and ask Google to remove the URL using their removal tool (another reason to integrate GSC!)

Bonus points if you also check to see if any external sites are linking to your broken content (again, GSC helps with this). If you do find external sources linking, try reaching out to them and ask them to update the link accordingly. 

Fixing External Links

Updating links to external sources is a bit easier. If any of the external links on your site lead users to a 404 page, the best and quickest thing to do is to find new content you can link to. If you can’t, remove the link and, if necessary, update your content to reflect the missing link note.

Final Thoughts

Fixing broken links may sound like it will take a lot of time, but after your initial pass, you can zip right through it. Making sure that your website is accessible, and that your content and site architecture flow, provides a better user experience. At the end of the day, that experience is a cornerstone of solid SEO. 

The post Why Broken Links are Bad for Business appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

It’s important that we get on the same page about a website redesign because they come in a few different forms. A complete website redesign means we are talking about starting from scratch. This is not only a different look and feel but very likely new imagery, copy, and functionality. A complete redesign means a new user experience, tailored to your ideal customer.

There is also a partial website redesign. This would involve an overhaul of either the frontend (the visuals and what customers see) or the backend (the code that powers various functionality). Maybe the overall design of your current site is serving you well, but you are growing and ready to add new features to your online store. Something like this might require a partial (backend) website redesign.

With either approach, the ultimate goal is increased business leads, sales, and results.

How often should a website be redesigned?

Ah, the million dollar question! Really though, it’s best to reevaluate your website every 2-5 years. With that in mind, it does depend on other factors, like industry, audience, services or products provided and of course, what your site looks like. If you feel like your website isn’t serving you as it should at any point, it’s definitely time for a full site assessment as to why performance is lacking.

In that case, I recommend starting with the metrics and hard data you have collected. Dive into your Google Analytics and Google Console tools to see where the disconnect is happening; identify problem areas in traffic, conversions, or rankings. From there, you can make an educated decision about what to do next. It will also help you decide if you need a complete or partial website redesign.

Pro Tip: This insight into your site will also be invaluable to your website pro, as it will allow your designer/developer to specifically address problem areas when creating a new website.

So, is it time for a Website Redesign?

Take the Quiz to Find Out

Here are seven questions that will give you a pretty good read on whether or not you may need a fresh take on your website.

The post Is it Time for a Website Redesign? appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

As part of a group zoom call the other day, a photographer friend of mine wanted to know if we had any website and social media tips that could help her stand out from the Google results crowd. While there were quite a few good ideas about social strategy, it got me thinking about how to help from a website perspective and even more specifically, a WordPress website perspective. Here are a handful of tips that I think would help boost her SEO and optimize her users’ experiences, which hopefully leads to more bookings and conversions.

P.S. – These tips would also work for other visual artists, like interior designers, illustrators, or anyone else who may use a lot of high-quality imagery to display their work.

Image Optimization is a Must

Everyone knows I’m big on optimization and speed, etc., so it probably comes as no surprise this is my top tip. Photographers want to (and should!) showcase gorgeous imagery, but that often comes with hefty file sizes, which can slow down a website. That is not only frustrating for users but also bad Google juju. Many are using gallery website services like Pixieset to display their images, which makes sense, as that service and others like it are optimizing imagery for you. The bad news is that those types of sites take potential clients away from your main site and most importantly, contact/booking info.

This is one of the main reasons I would recommend you select 3-5 images from each particular gallery you would like to showcase and put those on your main website. Include a link to view more, which directs users to your larger collection on Pixieset. (Always, always, always make sure your Pixiesets open in a new tab or window, so that your main site is still up and accessible without having to use a back button.) With those teaser images, users should get a clear idea of your style and the Pixieset gallery is just an added bonus.

But what about those 3-5 images?

Glad you asked. WordPress has some fantastic image optimization plugins, which should do the trick for the teaser images. Smush is a very popular plugin, with plenty of positive reviews, as is Imagify, which is the plugin I prefer, but mainly because they have a paid unlimited-image, unlimited-website plan. Since I offer image optimization as part of my website insurance, that fits my needs better. Another popular free plugin is ShortPixel, which may work best if operating on a “number of photos” basis works for you. Any of these plugins will get the job done, so it comes down to how many images you will be uploading and how frequently you’ll be posting.

Less is More

Speaking of photos, this probably goes without saying, but make sure you’re only posting your very best work. I know it can be hard, but be very selective about what images you decide to feature and make sure they are 100% reflective of your style.

How Does Your Website Design Stack Up?

Take a few minutes to really audit and evaluate your website. Does your website design reflect your style as a photographer (or other industry professional)? If you like to take bright, airy shots, are those the ones featured? If your vibe is more moody and natural, is that easy to see when someone visits your site?

A major key to conversions is whether or not your website is intuitive. Take a look at things like navigation and the title of your menu items. Ideally, I recommend keeping the main nav to 5-6 links and limit the dropdowns. Everything the user needs to view your work, learn about you and ultimately reach out, should be in those main nav items and not hidden in a dropdown.

Also think about verbiage when naming your pages and nav items. Those are elements that Google uses to help people find what they are looking for in the sea of SERPs (search engine results pages). A perfect example comes from one of my early clients. During her research prior to launching her business, she found peers using the term investment instead of pricing as their nav title. I’m all for a warm and fuzzy word choice, but investment can be confusing to a potential client. Plus, dollars to donuts (mmm donuts…), a potential client is not googling wedding photographer investment. They are putting wedding photographer pricing in the search bar and you want to be on that list that comes up.

Utilize White Space

One last note on overall website design, that I can’t stress enough for photographers and visual artists: White space is so important and while I know photographers who love bright, bold colors and have that as part of their brand, color shouldn’t compete with your images. Select 1-2 colors at most to complement your style, i.e., if you are that bright and airy photog, maybe fire engine red isn’t the color that would best serve your website. Select something in the family of your photography style and let your photos do the talking.

Consider a Blog

If you think that you can create a blog post at least once a month (ideally 2-3 times), then you may want to think about adding a blog to your website. Blogs are one of the best ways to get organic traffic. Not sure what to write about? Think about your ideal client and for what they will be searching. If you’re a photographer who specializes in senior portraits, why not create a blog post that includes a graduation checklist? Of course, senior portraits would be included and thus you’re relevant to someone searching for graduation checklist.

Many of my friends are wedding photogs and the topics there are plenty. Just think of all the things that brides-to-be search for online! Best Napa Valley wedding venues – blog post, with a few of your photos from those places mixed in; top Napa Valley wedding caterers – blog post, with some drool-worthy food shots; Napa Valley wedding cakes – another blog post with decadent cake photos… you get the idea.

You are providing valuable content, which Google rewards with traffic and you’re also establishing yourself as an industry specialist, which just adds to your credibility.

Need help?

If you’re unsure about how your website stacks up, reach out, and I’ll take a look at your site. Let’s see if we need to make small tweaks to get big results.

The post Best Website Tips for Photographers appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

Let’s talk ADA compliance, shall we? Most of us know it in the context of businesses that we frequent in-person… places with wheelchair accessibility or other accommodations for people with disabilities and the like. Those considerations seem obvious when you stop to think about them. But how do you get a website to be accessible? It’s a question I get a lot.

What does ‘website accessibility’ mean?

The short version is that your website content should be accessible to those users who are blind, deaf, or others with different types of disabilities who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers or voice assistance to navigate your site.

How to make a website accessible?

There are a lot of elements that go into making a website ADA-compliant, but here are my recommendations and tips to get your site on track.

Add Alt Text to All Images

Alt text is short for alternative text. It’s commonly referred to as an ‘alt tag’, but it’s a brief bit of text used within HTML code to describe an image or image function. This is important for a few reasons, with accessibility topping that list.

Any user relying on a screen reader to navigate a website will be read the alt text to help them understand the image that they can’t see. Think about that for a second. If I’m blind, I can’t see the image, so I’m relying on the website, through its use of alt text, to know what I’m missing visually. Totally makes sense, right?

An added benefit of alt text is that they also provide better image context for search engines, giving you a potential boost in SEO. Google can’t technically crawl an image file, but it can crawl the alt text, boosting your SEO if they see that you have a relevant image.

Alt text is also important to include in case an image file can’t be loaded for some reason (think super slow internet connection). The alt text will be displayed so the user has an idea of what should be there.

Alt Text in the Age of Pinterest

You may notice the image card above has text (a version of the post title) baked into it. Normally, I would say to try and steer clear of such things, but if you’re looking for your content to live on a website like Pinterest, it makes sense to have text right on an image. Since this image is purely “decorative” (an ADA image term) you can leave your alt text empty. I know, I know. It goes against the whole process and flow, but if your image is not necessary to understanding your content, alt=”” is sufficient. WordPress users, if you leave your alt text box empty, WordPress will interpret that appropriately on the front end.

If you aren’t sure whether your image is decorative or not, read your content out loud to someone else. If they can understand what you are saying without describing the images, then it’s probably safe to assume that the image(s) are decorative.

Optimal Alt Text

Close your eyes, have someone read the alt text and if you can conjure up a reasonable idea of the image, that’s a good start. Take a look at this example:

This works:

<img src="pasta.jpg" alt="bowl of pasta" />

But this is better:

<img src="pasta.jpg" alt="bowl of Turkey Bolognese with Parmesan cheese" />

Alt Text Recap:

• Describe the image as specifically as possible. The number one reason to use alt text is to provide a text description for people who can’t otherwise see the image.
• But keep it on the short side. The most popular screen readers cut off alt text around 125 characters so try to work within that.
• Use your keywords. If it relates to the image, go ahead and pop in one of your keywords in there.
• Don’t just type a list of keywords. Example of poor alt text: “pasta spaghetti Italian food dinner parmesan cheese” That won’t help anyone and Google will dock you.
• Don’t use images as text. Gah, my biggest pet peeve! Search engines can’t read text within your images, so please don’t bake text into your image. If you insist, declare what image says within your alt text.
• No need to include “image of,” “picture of,” etc. in your alt text. It’s already assumed, so you can save your characters.
• Don’t forget buttons. If you add in a form that includes an image as it’s “submit” button, include some alt text to describe its function like “sign up” or “search” etc.

Don’t Rely Solely on Color

I’m all for using color to draw attention to something or convey important meaning, but it’s best to not rely on color alone to convey info. Anyone using a screen reader or perhaps even someone who is colorblind may miss your (colorful) intention. For example, a success or error message on a form should include appropriate messages or icons explaining success or failure, not just indicating so with color.

Provide Structure to your Content

When drafting content, think about the overall structure in terms of a newspaper. There are headlines and subheadlines that quickly draw a reader’s eye to the content they want to read. This isn’t an option for non-sighted users, so it’s important to give your content headings where appropriate. For a vision-impaired user trying to read your content with a screen reader, they rely on these heading tags that are inserted into the code to indicate the various topics or sections on your site. Imagine seeing a teaser on the front page of the newspaper, but not being given any clear indication of where the article resides. How annoying is that?

When using headings, don’t skip heading levels (for example, use an <h1> tag then follow it with an <h3> tag). It will leave those screen reading users wondering if they missed part of the content. Using headings and lists appropriately is crucial to assisting users find their way around your site.

Captions or Transcripts for Video

We talked in-depth about the importance of alt text for images, but what about videos? It’s important to provide captions for those hard of hearing, or at minimum, a transcript below the video so they can understand its contents. As a bonus, captioning or transcribing your videos will also bump SEO. Search engines can’t watch a video to know what it’s about, but they can obtain information via the text included in your closed captions or transcripts.

Explain Links

Every link should make sense if the link text is read by itself. Screen reader users may choose to read only the links on a web page. Certain phrases like “click here” and “more” should really be avoided.

Accessibility Bonus Tip:

This one isn’t even really based on ADA best practices so much as just good design: make sure your content is visually easy to read and understand. We’re not just talking quality content, but also legibility. When I’m designing a site, I think about font clarity and sizing, along with colors and contrast. Take a look at the two buttons below:

In general, make sure your site is following the WCAG guidelines as closely as possible. These have become the accepted principles of web accessibility and will ensure that all users have an optimum experience on your website.

The post The Top 5 Steps to Get Your Website Accessible appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

Thanks to a new baby (who is now 18 months– what!?!) and a very energetic big brother who turned 4 in November, coupled with a full workload for which I’m incredibly grateful, and a global pandemic (thrown in for good measure), the blog just got pushed to the back burner. Like, six-burners-deep back burner.

Oy.

With the start of 2021, I’m ready to start writing again and return from my (unintentional) blogging hiatus. In an effort to better serve my clients, I’ll be shifting focus to more web-related and WordPress topics, like image optimization and tips for keeping a website tidy, but there will still be the occasional kid-post. Let’s be honest, they really dictate the free time, amiright?

One of the biggest tasks that the blog hiatus allowed me to accomplish was the redesign of my own website. Finally! I was the epitome of the whole cobbler’s children have no shoes, telling people how to keep their website up to date, but totally ignoring my own… facepalm.

This new redesign took the better part of 2020 to finalize but I’m so, so happy to see it come to life. The new design also comes with a sweet custom dashboard on the backend, in place to better serve my clients, as well as streamline many of my own web processes. I am genuinely hoping that the new look and functions will make it easier and more efficient (I’m all about efficiency these days!) to keep things up to date, both professionally and personally. I also hope to use this platform as a means to catch up with people that I haven’t been able to see on account of that whole pandemic thing. Honestly 2020, you were the worst.

So settle in with a warm beverage, browse around and let me know what you think. If it’s been a while since we’ve chatted, tell me what you’ve been up to in the comments!

The post Blog Hiatus: It’s Been a Minute appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

It’s no secret that I love WordPress and how easy it is to manage your website content on a day to day basis with it. The ability WP provides to make customizations and implement new features means you don’t have to know HTML or any other coding language… but it sure helps if you do…especially as your business grows.

This is where professional web designers and developers (read: me) come in. When you need special features unique to your business, it helps to have a seasoned designer and savvy developer to make sure you’re implementing your new feature in the best way possible. But, it’s not enough for the new feature to look good, it has to function well, too. This is what highlights the difference between a web designer and a web developer.

So What’s the Difference?

The short version is that a designer determines the overall look and feel of the website. The developer translates that vision into code and makes it functional. And that’s why you need both. Imagine remodeling your kitchen and only hiring an interior designer. Sure, the plans look gorgeous, but without a contractor to execute the design, what good are they?

The Role of a Web Designer

Web designers are responsible for the overall look and design of a website, but that encompasses a lot. They are tasked with creating an appealing aesthetic that also effectively guides visitors to convert, whether that be purchasing something, subscribing to something or heeding some other type of call to action.

This process also requires a serious amount of research and testing as well, so just a keen eye for things that look good isn’t enough— you need to know how it will perform as well. A quality web designer will be able to create a tailor-made visitor experience that will resonate with visitors. This experience must also be balanced by an understanding of how those design decisions will impact the coding of the website.

The Role of a Web Developer

We know the importance of making a site look good, but in order for the website to accomplish its goal, it needs to be functional as well. This is where a seasoned web developer can make all the difference.

A web developer can speak code and thus translate a design into the appropriate coding language. Using the power of programming languages like HTML, CSS, or Javascript (to name just a few), a web developer can make a design come to life, using a foundation of best practices and technical know-how. Going back to our remodeling analogy, a web developer knows which materials to use to build that dream kitchen and how to get all those moving parts talking to one another.

Where Colleen LeMasters Creative Falls

Within the design and dev worlds, there are also specific focus areas. For designers, they may choose to specialize in something like user experience, or user interface, while a developer may choose to focus on the front-end, back-end or both, known as full-stack.

Like many, I fall in the middle…of each. While it’s common for an individual to pursue either design or development, I have chosen to specialize in both. I have a keen design eye, with an understanding of customer psychology; meeting the challenges of good design satiates the creative side of my brain. On the other hand, my analytical side loves a good puzzle, which is how I view code. How can I efficiently use code to solve the design puzzle that is presented to me?

Honestly, both areas motivate me and I’m lucky that when I’m not “feeling creative” I can switch gears and code. On the other hand, when the puzzle pieces just aren’t clear, I can turn my attention to design and refresh.

At the end of the day, a well-performing website needs both skillsets. Being able to balance savvy design with strong code is what I love doing and the flexibility, as well as the drive to excel at both, gives me a unique perspective that you won’t find anywhere else.

The post Web Designers vs Web Developers appeared first on Colleen LeMasters Creative.

August 12, 2012 was the day I “went live” on this venture, not sure what it would bring. Dave and I were headed to France, about to embark on a two-year European adventure where I wasn’t allowed to work, so I needed something to keep me busy (and to keep me from eating allll the baguettes and cheese). I hatched a plan to design and code websites which was something I’d always loved doing. Working with American clients meant I wasn’t in violation of my tourist visa. It made sense. I was nervous about making sure my clients knew they’d be a priority, despite a nine-hour time difference, let alone finding clients that were willing to work with someone so far away. I waded through so many Craigslist ads that it was scary, only to have about one out of every 100 reply.

Now here I am, seven years later, still doing what I love. I didn’t even realize how much I would love it, or what a perfect fit it is for the life I wanted, in which I could make my schedule to accommodate what’s best for my kids. I’m pretty damn lucky.

All of this wouldn’t be possible, though, without a little (a lot of) help. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a supportive husband who gets it when I need to work a few extra hours at night and parents who are willing to take care of my kids so I can work without worry for their care. There is no better feeling than knowing that they are being looked after by people who love them as much as I do. And, now that my son is in preschool, I’m lucky that the feeling has been extended to his teachers there.

Honestly, the peace of mind that comes from knowing your kids are safe and loved when they aren’t with you is really invaluable. It allows me to fully focus on work during the day and be a better mom to them.

I’m lucky to have amazing clients, who trust me with their online worlds and communication needs. I’m forever grateful that they select me to work on their projects, allowing me to sustain this business that truly fulfills my professional side.

I can’t believe it’s been seven years since I started. Wowsa. I’m feeling grateful, proud and excited for what’s coming up.

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