Author: Chris Giminez

How to Get the Most Value From Your Website

Your website should work like a top salesperson that never sleeps. If it’s slow, thin on content, not showing up for relevant searches, or hard to use, you’re leaving money on the table. This guide covers the fundamentals that drive results and shows how adding a living, breathing Portfolio Manager turns a “standard site” into a growth engine.

The Fundamentals That Matter

1) Fast Loading

Why it matters: Speed influences user trust, conversion rates, and search visibility.
What to do: Optimize images, minify assets, leverage caching/CDN, and keep code lean.
Goal: Under ~2 seconds for key pages on typical mobile connections.

2) ADA Compliance (Accessibility)

Why it matters: Expands your audience, improves UX for everyone, and reduces legal risk.
What to do: Use semantic HTML, labels for form inputs, sufficient color contrast, alt text on images, keyboard navigation, and ARIA descriptions where needed.
SEO impact: Accessibility improvements overlap with page experience signals Google uses in ranking (e.g., Core Web Vitals, mobile usability). Investing in accessibility strengthens these signals and can support better search visibility.

3) Purpose-Built Landing Pages

Why it matters: Each core service/product deserves its own page to rank and convert.
What to do: Build focused pages with clear headlines, benefits, proof (photos/testimonials), FAQs, and a specific call to action.

4) Smart Keyword Placement

Why it matters: Relevance and clarity help searchers and search engines.
What to do: Put plain-language keywords in titles, H1/H2s, image alt text, meta descriptions, and body copy. Avoid keyword stuffing; write for humans first.

5) Fresh, Relevant Content

Why it matters: Recency and topic coverage correlate with visibility and user engagement.
What to do: Publish consistent, real-world updates tied to your services and outcomes.
SEO impact: Google favors fresh, relevant content that demonstrates expertise and satisfies search intent. A steady cadence of high-quality updates can improve discovery and engagement.

The Missing Piece: Fresh Content at Scale

Most businesses struggle to publish fresh content regularly. That’s where my Portfolio Manager changes the game. It makes it dead-simple to capture real projects photos, before/after sliders, location, job type, materials/colors, and customer testimonials—and publish them as optimized pages on your site.

How it works in practice:

You or your team upload project details from a phone or desktop.
Images are automatically sized and compressed for fast loading.
Optional before/after sliders showcase transformations.
Each project becomes its own SEO-optimized page, linked from your portfolio and service pages.
Share the URL to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Business Posts—they automatically generate a preview card with the project cover image, title, and short description. For Instagram, use the project cover image and place the URL in your bio or a Story link.

Standard Site vs. Site with Portfolio Manager

Capability	Standard Website	Website + Portfolio Manager
Fresh content	Occasional blog posts if time allows	Every project becomes a post-worthy page automatically
SEO coverage/page count	Limited to a few core pages	Dozens to hundreds of pages targeting real keywords and locations
Proof & trust	A few photos and generic testimonials, rarely updated	Rich galleries, before/after sliders, detailed specs, and verified testimonials, regularly updated
Social content	Generic updates	Shareable project pages that pull visitors back to your site
Google Business Profile	Sparse updates	Frequent posts with links to new projects; improved engagement signals
Analytics insights	Basic	Granular: see which job types, cities, drive views and inquiries

Why This Boosts SEO and Rankings

Topical depth: Project pages build a wide base of related content around your services and locations.
Query matching: Real phrases your customers use (“cabinet repaint in North Albany,” “deck stain in Corvallis”) appear naturally in titles, headings, and alt text.
Internal linking: Project pages link to service pages (and vice versa), strengthening relevance.
Engagement signals: Faster, richer pages reduce bounce and encourage time-on-site.
Off-site signals: Sharing project pages on social and posting them to your Google Business Profile keeps your brand active and discoverable.

No one can guarantee rankings. What we can do is systematically increase your surface area of relevance and the credibility of every page.

How It Creates Ongoing Social Content

Every published project gives you:

A compelling headline + timestamped proof
A gallery or before/after slider
A short blurb you can paste into Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Business Posts
A clean URL that points back to your site (not just an image on a social feed)
Auto-preview on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Business Posts: pasting the URL pulls the project cover image, title, and short description via OG/meta tags. (Instagram doesn’t auto-unfurl links in feed posts—use the image + link in bio or a Story link.)

What Your Project Pages Include

Job type & custom options (e.g., “Job Type – Cabinets,” “Paint Color – White”)
City & state for local SEO
Project description and highlights
Photo gallery with compression for fast loading and alt text fields for ADA compliance and SEO
Before/after slider support
Optional customer testimonial with photo
Call-to-action (estimate request, phone, or booking link)

Implementation Roadmap

Audit & Tune Fundamentals: speed, accessibility, structure, tracking.
Build or Refine Service Pages: one per core service/product with FAQs.
Install Portfolio Manager: configure your job types/options; train your team.
Publish Cadence: commit to a realistic rhythm (e.g., 4–8 projects per month).
Distribute: share each project to social + Google Business Profile.
Measure & Iterate: track impressions, clicks, and form submissions; adjust.

FAQs

Q: Will this get me better leads?
A: It improves lead quality by showing real work, locations, and outcomes so buyers can self-qualify. You’ll attract customers looking for proof, not just low prices.

Q: How quickly will I see results?
A: You can see indexing and engagement within weeks; broader SEO momentum builds over months as your portfolio grows.

Q: Can the job types and options be customized?
A: Yes. Everything is tailored to your business—services, materials, colors, finish types, and more.

August 28, 2025

Enhancing Web Applications with AI: Property Management Examples
In my career of over 25 years as a web developer, I’ve witnessed numerous changes, yet none as significant as the advent of AI. This isn’t just another step in technology; it’s a giant leap forward since the creation of the web. Moving into 2024, AI assistants are set to become integral to web applications, not only making them more user-friendly but also introducing innovative features and functionalities that enhance user interaction.

The Potential of AI in Web Development

I have been exploring various ways to integrate AI Assistants into web applications, especially those I’ve developed previously. My attention has been centered on pinpointing areas where AI can notably boost efficiency, precision, and the overall user experience. Numerous ideas are emerging. Below are some examples of how we could soon use AI in a property management website.

AI in Property Management Websites
1. Automated Image Descriptions:
  - Benefit: When property managers upload listings, AI can suggest appropriate image descriptions. This feature not only expedites the listing process but also significantly enhances the SEO and accessibility of the properties showcased. Importantly, it aids in ensuring ADA compliance, making the website more accessible to users with visual impairments, aligning with web accessibility standards.
2. Enhanced Listing Descriptions:
  - Benefit: AI’s role in refining listing descriptions is invaluable. It can offer improvements and automate the correction of grammar and spelling errors, leading to more polished and attractive listings.
3. Spam Detection in Contact Forms:
  - Benefit: The issue of spambots filling out website contact forms is a significant challenge, and traditional methods like Captcha are increasingly at risk of being outsmarted by AI-driven spammers. The advanced capability of AI to comprehend the context of messages offers a more robust solution than current filtering and spam prevention techniques. This superior filtering method effectively separates real client inquiries from spam, substantially reducing time wasted on false leads. This allows property managers to dedicate their efforts to genuine, profitable interactions.
4. AI-Powered Chatbots:
  - Benefit: Custom-trained chatbots can provide instant, accurate responses to customer inquiries, tailored to the specific policies and information of the property management business. This ensures consistent and efficient customer service, 24×7. And, your client can communicate in virtually any language.
The integration of AI in web applications is set to redefine the landscape of web development in 2024 and beyond. For industries like property management, it’s not just a trend but an essential evolution, leading to enhanced operational efficiency and client satisfaction.
December 15, 2023
AI in Web Development

It was just earlier this year that I started paying attention to AI. I was amazed at its ability to write content and follow instructions using plain language. Then, I was blown away by AI image generation with MidJourney—just describe what you want, and the image is created in seconds. I now incorporate AI tools into my daily workflow for repetitive coding tasks, content creation, SEO analysis/optimization, and image generation. It has enabled me to build websites faster and better and I’m constantly discovering new ways to use it. The growth of this technology is expanding at an exponential rate. What it can’t do today, it may be capable of tomorrow.

The Inevitable Shift: AI’s Role in Replacing Human Labor

There is no question that this technology will replace human labor; the real questions are how much and how quickly. I can certainly envision it quickly replacing much of my custom web application work. If we integrate AI technology into a website and give it access to the database, it could largely eliminate the need to build custom tools that are currently required for reports, charts, graphs, filters, searches, and custom exports to Excel or PDF. Can we do this now? Not as easily as I’m describing, but given the current growth rate, that reality can’t be far off.

AI Integration: The Future of Web Applications

AI today is akin to a really smart tool. It can sort through data, certainly, and it can even produce some impressive graphs. But it’s not ready to assume full control just yet. AI requires specific guidance, clear instructions, and clean data to work its magic effectively. It doesn’t ‘think’ like us—it can’t handle tasks it hasn’t been trained for and may falter with complex problems that a developer would navigate with intuition and experience.

AI Today: A Smart Tool with Limitations

Developers are still very much in demand. Our role is merely evolving. Rather than coding every report, we’ll soon be directing the AI, training it, and ensuring it integrates seamlessly with the data. We’re using AI to manage the routine tasks, allowing us to focus on the broader vision. AI is a tool, not a substitute. We leverage AI for what it excels at—quick, repetitive tasks—while we tackle the creative and intricate challenges. It’s all about teamwork.

For those in the web development field, the imperative is to stay informed. It’s crucial to learn about AI, but equally important is to remember the human element—that’s our unique contribution. AI is definitely reshaping web development, but it’s a step-by-step transformation. AI is gradually taking on more responsibilities as we evolve alongside it. The future of web development with AI holds promise, but it’s important to approach it with measured optimism.

November 17, 2023
The Truth About Accessibility Plugins: Good Design Is the Key to ADA Compliance
The digital world, like the physical world, should be accessible to everyone. However, the task of making a website ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant is not always straightforward. It’s easy to turn to WordPress accessibility plugins as a potential solution, given their promises to improve site accessibility. But can these plugins offer a comprehensive fix to accessibility issues? While they can provide some helpful tweaks, they are not a substitute for the bedrock of a truly accessible site: good, fundamental design with accessibility in mind from the start.

The Role of Accessibility Plugins: WordPress accessibility plugins can assist with certain elements of site accessibility. They can aid in adding alt text to images, improving keyboard navigation, enforcing minimum font sizes, analyzing color contrast, and adding ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) labels. These features can enhance the usability of your site for individuals with disabilities.

However, it’s important to understand that these plugins are tools, not all-encompassing solutions. They can aid with some aspects of website accessibility, but they can’t transform a fundamentally inaccessible site into an ADA-compliant one.

The Limitations of Accessibility Plugins: Despite the helpful assistance these plugins can provide, they have significant limitations that need to be highlighted:
1. Content Adaptation: Plugins cannot adapt your content to make it more readable or understandable. Aspects such as clear language, descriptive link text, proper heading structure, and more are outside of a plugin’s capabilities.
2. Design Limitations: Plugins cannot redesign your site to follow accessibility principles. If your site relies heavily on visuals to convey information, you’ll need to provide equivalent text-based content – a task beyond a plugin’s reach.
3. Complex Features: Complex elements like forms, interactive maps, or multimedia content often stump plugins. Ensuring these features are fully accessible typically requires the expertise of a web developer familiar with accessibility.
4. Automated vs Manual: As automated tools, plugins might miss certain issues or generate false positives, which underscores the need for human review and testing.
The Power of Good Design: When a site is designed and built with accessibility at the core, it is typically unnecessary to add an accessibility plugin. Good fundamental design following ADA guidelines is crucial to ensuring your website is genuinely accessible to all users. To illustrate this, let’s consider an example of a blind user navigating a website that relies on a plugin for accessibility improvements.

As you can see, even with the plugin, significant accessibility issues persist.

It’s clear that WordPress accessibility plugins can be part of an accessibility improvement strategy, but they should never be mistaken as a one-stop solution. Creating a genuinely accessible website requires a commitment to inclusive and good design from the very beginning, coupled with regular evaluation and continuous improvement. It’s not just about ticking a box for ADA compliance – it’s about ensuring your content is accessible to all. With good fundamental design, your website can be a welcoming space for everyone, without needing to rely on additional plugins.
June 28, 2023
Does My Website Really Need a Cookie Notification?
As you browse the internet, you’ve likely come across pop-ups that ask you to accept cookies or make a decision about which ones to accept. When I visit a website, I’m not there to be immediately forced to make a decision about how my cookies are handled. Is this really necessary?

May we divert your attention and force you to make a choice?

Please note this is not legal advice. It’s important to consult with legal professionals for specific legal advice.

What are cookies and why do we need them?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device by websites that you visit. They’re used to remember user preferences, login information, and other details that help improve your experience on a website. They can also be used to track user behavior for advertising purposes.

In general, cookies are necessary for many websites to function properly. Without them, you may find yourself having to re-enter login information every time you navigate to a different page or losing items in your shopping cart.

Common ways cookies are used
1. Maintaining information from one page to another
As mentioned earlier, cookies are commonly used to maintain information from one page to another. This can include login information, shopping cart items, and other details that help improve your experience on a website.
1. Personalization
Cookies can be used to personalize your experience on a website. This can include things like showing you relevant content, remembering your language preferences, and more.
1. Analytics
Cookies can be used to track user behavior on a website. This can help website owners understand how users interact with their site and make improvements based on that data.
1. Advertising
Cookies can be used for advertising purposes. This includes tracking user behavior across different websites to show more targeted ads.

Are cookie pop-ups necessary for my website?

In general, American websites don’t need cookie pop-ups unless they’re collecting personal data or are subject to GDPR regulations (Applies to European Union). However, it’s important for website owners to review their specific situation and consult with legal professionals to ensure compliance with any relevant regulations. Having a privacy policy that includes information about cookies your site uses that your visitors can choose to access is recommended.

Why are cookie pop-ups so common?

Despite not likely needing them, many American-based businesses have cookie pop-up boxes on their website. This is often because the warning box is included as part of the website template that was developed to be used by an international customer base, and website owners may not understand how to disable it, or whether it should be. So, do your website visitors a favor and consider dumping that cookie notification box.
March 5, 2023
How to Define Your Google Business Service Areas for Maximum Visibility and Reach

As a business owner, one of the key challenges is reaching your target audience and attracting new customers. A Google Business Listing is a powerful tool that can help you achieve this goal by improving your visibility in local search results.

However, to ensure that your Google Business Listing is as effective as possible, it’s important to define your service areas carefully. In this article, we’ll explore the factors to consider when defining your Google Business service areas, and how to strike a balance between local and nationwide visibility.

Google Business Listings

Consider Your Business Goals and Target Audience

When defining your Google Business service areas, it’s important to consider your business goals and target audience. Are you primarily focused on serving customers in your local area, or do you work with clients nationwide? Understanding your target audience will help you determine which service areas to focus on.

For example, if you operate a local business that primarily serves customers in a specific geographic area, it may be more beneficial to focus on your local cities and towns as service areas. On the other hand, if you operate a business that targets customers nationwide, a nationwide service area may be more appropriate.

Factor in Competition and Budget

In addition to your business goals and target audience, it’s important to consider your competition and budget when defining your Google Business service areas. If you operate in a highly competitive market, it may be more effective to focus on a smaller geographic area to gain a competitive advantage. Additionally, if you have a limited budget for marketing, focusing on a smaller geographic area can be more cost-effective.

List the Areas You Serve Carefully

Once you’ve determined your service areas, it’s important to list them carefully in your Google Business Listing. You can list your service areas by city, county, state, or region, depending on your preferences and goals.

However, it’s important to strike a balance between listing enough service areas to improve your visibility in local search results and ensuring that your listing remains targeted and relevant to potential customers. Listing too many areas as service areas can dilute the effectiveness of your Google Business Listing and make it less relevant to potential customers. Also consider that customers in the smaller towns you service usually search based on the larger

Defining your Google Business service areas is an important step in improving your visibility in local search results and attracting new customers. By considering your business goals, target audience, competition, and budget, you can determine which service areas to focus on and list them carefully in your Google Business Listing. With a well-defined service area, you can improve your reach and attract more customers to your business.

If you need help optimizing your Google Business listing, we’re here to help. [email protected], 541-327-5045.

March 3, 2023
Why Should I Care if my Website is ADA Compliant?
What is ADA Compliance and How Does it Apply to Websites?

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990. This legislation prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have equal access and opportunity to participate in government and public services. Because of this law, public accommodations have been made to make otherwise inaccessible things accessible. Common examples include automatic-opening doors, public bathrooms large enough for wheelchairs, ramps or elevators in addition to stairways, handicap parking spaces, braille instructions at public kiosks and banking terminals, audible crosswalk indicators, and closed captioning for videos. Many of us likely take these things for granted now. They’re “normal” today. At the time this legislation was initially implemented, there was significant resistance. Think of an old building being used as a restaurant. It may have needed to add a front entrance ramp, maybe the front door was not wide enough for wheelchair access, and the bathrooms would have needed a complete remodel to widen the door to allow enough room for a wheelchair to maneuver. No doubt this was expensive, but as time went on, businesses adapted and new construction implemented compliant features in the initial design and the cost was factored in as the cost of doing business.

Is this how welcoming your website is to visitors with disabilities?

The Importance of Website ADA Compliance

A large number of websites currently in use were built without taking ADA compliance issues into consideration. New websites, like new construction in the early ’90s are mostly built with some level of compliance taken into consideration. Mostly, because unlike buildings, there is no permit with building codes required to build a website. It’s up to the client to demand it or the developer to treat it as a standard current requirement. While there appears to be little enforcement of the law from the DOJ, enforcement is coming from civil lawsuits. In 2019, the US Supreme Court refused to hear a case that was decided in favor of a blind plaintiff vs Domino’s Pizza. Guillermo Robles sued Domino’s Pizza for not being able to use their website and mobile app with his screen-reading software. In the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, they stated “alleged inaccessibility of Domino’s website and app impedes access to the goods and services of its physical pizza franchise – which are places of public accommodation.”

If your public website is negligent in ADA compliance, you could be sued as well. A search for recent news on the topic reveals a steady stream of recent cases.
- March 2020 – Million-Dollar Settlements of Closed Captioning Website Accessibility Lawsuits Highlight Need for Dual Approach
- February 2020 – How Your Small Business Website Can Get You Sued
- February 2020 – Another ADA Lawsuit Alleges Website Not Accessible to the Blind: This time the Target is the Wine Enthusiast Catalog
- September 2019 – Beyoncé Was Sued Over Her Website Violating the Americans With Disabilities Act. And You Could Be Too
Making your website accessible can reduce your potential liability. Following ADA guidelines will make most websites easier to use for all users. Aside from simply being the right thing to do, it can also benefit your bottom line by making your information, products or services accessible to a wider audience.

Common Website ADA Violations

The list below is a very brief summary of some of the commonly found ADA problems found on a large percentage of websites. It is not a complete list, but it may help you identify potential problem areas in your current website.
- Images with no description
  Images must have an alt value to describe the contents and/or any text within.
- Using PDF files that are not screen reader ready
  PDF files can be ADA friendly, but scanned documents can be full of typos, making screen readers unable to accurately convey the data.
- Using PDF forms
  PDF forms are rarely ADA compliant. Forms should be presented as html to be mobile ready and properly labeled for accessibility.
- Videos without Closed Captioning
  If you have videos on your website hosted yourself or through a site like YouTube, they must have the option to show closed captioning.
- Font size and colors
  Text must be a minimum size and have a sufficient color contrast to the background. Clickable icons and buttons must have a minimum size and spacing.
- Keyboard ready navigation
  Some users may not have the option to use a mouse or touch pad and must rely on using the keyboard alone to navigate a website.
ADA Website Resources
Please reach out to Cyber Scriber if you would like a free ADA compliance review of your website or to get a quote for building a new, modern and compliant website.
April 2, 2020
The Great Quarantine of 1982

As we work through staying home for most of several weeks or months in 2020, imagine how it might have been if we had to go through it back in 1982. We have so many conveniences that are easy to take for granted.

Schools have closed to prevent the spread of the virus. Online schooling is not an option. There is no internet. The schools have sent out packets of recommended assignments. You can do some of it if your family owns a set of encyclopedias. Before wiki-anything, some households had volumes of books often sold by door to door salesmen.

Most newspapers have changed to publishing one or two papers per week. Staff in the newsrooms must be limited. Working from home still involves carrying printed paper to the newsroom. This and 1 of 3 choices of the nightly news is your only source of outside information. There is no internet. If you have a retirement fund, you’ll find out how much its value has decreased when you get your monthly statement in the mail. It’s already dropped 30% before you can even think of putting the wheels in motion to sell.

The latest reporting shows 30,000 cases in the country, but this is only a small fraction of actual cases. Reporting from thousands of labs is done by mail and phone. It’s inconsistent and prone to error. The available information is weeks behind the actual count. There is no internet.

Entertainment options are minimal. Music is limited to the tapes and records in your house and whatever you can catch on the radio. There is that one AM station that plays pretty good music, but it’s mono, not stereo. If you live in town, you probably have MTV, which is great! Now you get to see and hear 12 or so current songs played on a loop. TV shows come and go. You’re going to need to be in front of the TV when your show comes on. You don’t have a phone or tablet for streaming video. No pausing, no recording for later, except for the few households that could afford a VCR and tapes. Top choices include The A-Team, TJ Hooker and Joanie Loves Chachi. Enjoy. There is no internet.

You might want to reach out and touch someone. See how your parent, sibling, boyfriend, girlfriend is doing in their quarantine by giving them a call. If they live close by, like really close by, you can talk all you want for free, but more than 10 miles and it might be long distance and it will cost you more every minute. The longer the distance, the bigger the bill, so it’s going to be a quick call. You’re also going to be physically near the phone, most still have a cord. Better get used to writing letters. There is no video chat, no texting, no facebook, no instant messaging. There is no internet.

Today, we can play scrabble with Mom any time of day for free from anywhere, we can video chat with anyone. Many jobs can be done remotely. Kids and adults alike have virtually unlimited access to online classes and other resources to learn about virtually any topic. You can learn a foreign language, starting immediately and at your own pace. We can get our news from thousands of sources worldwide in an instant – print, video, podcast. Explore music from any era or genre. Food and supplies can be ordered online – delivered to your door. There’s a whole new SEASON of Ozark on Netflix today. Stay home while we keep the infection rates down. We can do this. It’s not that bad. We have the internet.

March 27, 2020
Should I build my own small business website?
Small business owners face this question all the time. There are a lot of great website builder tools made for anyone with basic computer skills, including Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, Weebly, WordPress, and many more. The biggest benefit to building it yourself is the lower cost. No need to spend on a marketing specialist, graphic artist, or website developer. These costs can add up quickly. The downside is you might make some mistakes and bad decisions along the way, resulting in a website that doesn’t work as well as it should, resulting in less revenue. It’s also worth considering the value of your own time and how many hours you will need to invest in not only building the site but learning how.

If you have created your own website or are considering it, here are some common mistakes to avoid and tips on how to make a better website.

ADA Compliance

Some of your website visitors may have a disability that prevents them from being able to use your website or need assistance. This is often overlooked by website building tools, or it is in the hands of the developer. Below are some basic ADA guidelines to follow. For more information, review the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and to do some basic testing of your own website, try the WAVE Web Accessibility Testing Tool.

Common ADA violations found on DIY websites (and many “pro” developed sites)

PDF’s and PDF Forms

PDF files are commonly misused in websites. Adobe Acrobat has a built-in accessibility checker (Pro Version) that can help find and fix accessibility problems. All text should be machine readable. Sections of content should be labeled for screen readers to identify, such as headers, paragraphs, tables, and images. Images should have an alternative description.

As we continue to transition from paper to digital, it seems simple enough to take our old paper forms and place them online as pdf files. This is not an acceptable practice as these are rarely ADA compliant and are difficult to make compliant. PDF forms should be converted to html forms so they can be fully accessible. An html form is much easier to use and will get a higher use rate for all of your website visitors.

Form Labeling

Many modern DIY site building tools are handling form accessibility better recently, but many are still catching up or not doing it well at all. Form labels (the text that says “First Name” next to the box where the first name is to be entered) must include instructions to guide visitors using screen readers. It should indicate if it is a required field. It can also specify a tab order. This is important for users that navigate your site with a keyboard instead of a mouse. There is also a common naming convention for form elements. Following this helps users with autocomplete easily fill in common values. This blog post reviews form element naming in more detail.

Color Contrast

If your website is just dark text over a white background, you’re good! But that’s a bit boring, so most designers would like to add some color to the fonts and put that over a background color or an image. Some website visitors may have trouble distinguishing subtle color variances; therefore, it’s important to make sure your text colors have a sufficient contrast to the background. Use the web accessibility color contrast checker to test your site.

Form Captcha

Captcha: Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart

Why are they used? Bots – these are automated computer programs on a mission to flood your forms with spam. By design, a captcha cannot be read by a machine. So if you have one of these on your site, it may be difficult or impossible to use for a visually impaired user. Even with a captcha in your form, spammers sometimes get through forms, but there are many effective techniques that can keep spam to a minimum with no captcha at all.

Not only is ADA compliance important to provide an accessible and easy-to-use website for all of your visitors, it can also lead to legal problems if neglected. From the LA Times in 2018 – Lawsuits targeting business websites over ADA violations are on the rise.

Responsive – Mobile Ready

Many DIY templates accomplish “mobile compatibility” by displaying content in a single column. This single column expands or shrinks based on the screen size. This makes a desktop experience feel like you’re viewing the site through a blown-up phone screen. It’s like being stuck in the front row of the movie theater.

A well-designed site will be built with a responsive framework where the content is adapted to fit the screen size it’s presented on. Common frameworks are built on a 12-grid system. This offers a tremendous amount of flexibility that is often difficult to customize in a DIY site builder.

Don’t put important text in images.

A common example of this is to take a flyer made for printing and putting it on your website. Unless you add all of your information in the alt value of the image, a visually disabled person can’t read the key information that is likely printed on the flyer, such as the event name, location, time, etc. It is better to list your information as html in addition to the flyer so all visitors have a way to read the important information. This is also much better for SEO (see structured data below).

Underlying Page Structure

Screen readers rely on the identification of sections of the page to understand its structure. For this, use markers like <header>, <footer>, <nav>, and <article>. These are often not used in DIY building templates or are used incorrectly.

SEO Best Practices

SEO – Search Engine Optimization is a collection of techniques that make your website rank better in search engine results. This is often overlooked or not fully understood. This is a very deep topic and there are a lot of great resources to learn more about it, but some fundamental principles that are often neglected include:
- Use relevant page titles that include your important keywords. I have often seen the home page of a website with a title of “Home” or “Home Page” or even “Page Title.” Not only is the title important as your keywords, but this is what will show as the name of the link in search engines. It should be the name of your business or organization and possibly a short sentence describing who or what you are. For internal pages, it should accurately describe the subject of the page content.
- Use keywords in section titles, links, and lists. Use header tags <h1-5> to identify sections of content.
- Create individual landing pages to describe your most important products, services, or events.
Structured Data

One of the important behind-the-scenes jobs of a website is to let Google know specific details about your business, product, or event. This is done in part with structured data. Check to see if your website has structured data and if it is the correct type. For example, if you have an event, you can include the name, description, performer, date, time, ticket price all as structured data. Google then knows about your event and can show information about it when users are searching for events related to your topic or even any local events near them. This provides more exposure to your site. But if your event data is incorrectly entered as a product (a common problem with DIY websites), you won’t get these benefits. Learn more about the types and requirements of structured data.

Content Organization

How many pages? What information should be grouped together? How can it be presented in a clear and concise way? A website is a collection of information. Sometimes a lot of information. Building a site presents all sorts of decisions and can go horribly wrong quickly, leaving you with an unorganized, cluttered mess that isn’t effectively communicating with your audience.

Customization

DIY website builders have a lot of ways to customize how your site will look and function, but there are many limitations in what they can do and your own skill level. This can result in a site that doesn’t quite work the way it should or the way you need it to, and instead of finding a way to get it done the right way, it’s left as “good enough.”

Website Load Time

When you view a webpage, you’re viewing a collection of files assembled by your browser. This includes the page code, files that control the page display, such as javascript, css embedded fonts, and images. A poorly built site may load slowly from downloading unnecessary supporting files, inefficient and bloated code, and oversized and uncompressed images. Test your website load time. Does it take more than 3 seconds to load? If so, you’ve got some work to do. According to Google research, it’s 32% more likely your mobile users will leave if your site doesn’t load in 3 seconds or less, and it gets much worse from there. Your hosting platform is an important component in this as well. If your host has your site on an overloaded or slow server or network, it may be sluggish at delivering files to your website visitors or even have excessive downtime and errors.

Hopefully, these tips will help you make a better DIY website or become aware of some of the many details that go into creating a well-designed website before choosing to take on the task yourself or hiring your “sister-in-law’s friend who does websites on the side.” A bad website can not only not help your business or organization, it can even be a detriment.

Please contact Chris @ Cyber Scriber if you would like to have your website evaluated or to get your site professionally developed.
March 1, 2020
Redesign Website to Be Responsive

One of the first projects I had the privilege to work on 18 years ago was to create a website to preserve the family history of the Balbi Family. It has been my priveledge to maintain this site for nearly two decades now. There are three versions of the site, English, Italian and Spanish. We have redesigned the site a few times, the most recent was just completed. The owner of the site was happy with the design, but the site was not built using a responsive framework. This means that the smaller screens so many of us use now would not be able to see the site in a format tailored for their screen. The purpose of the redesign was to make the site responsive and mobile friendly. We used the Zurb Foundation css framework to accomplish this.

Original Website

This is the previous version of the site built in 2013.

Redesigned Website on a Large Screen

This is the redesigned responsive site. For a large screen, there is very little difference. The new site uses css for most backgrounds and rounded corners. The previous site used images for this as css methods were not commonly supported by the browsers of the time.

Redesigned Website on a Medium Screen

As the screen size gets smaller, the original site did nothing but shrink. The responsive site changes based on the size of the screen. The first transition happens when the slideshow images move above the opening text. The content window and header shrink to match the screen size.

Redesigned Website on a Small Screen

Displaying the site on a much smaller screen results in several more changes to the layout. This would typically apply to a phone screen in portrait mode. In the header, we stack the logo over the language options and hide the text label. There is no longer room to show the menu next to the content, so that is converted to a menu tucked in between the header and main content.

Without the responsive framework, the full website would be shrunk down to fit on the screen. The user would have to zoom in to the specific part of the site they would want to read. This makes it very difficult to use on smaller screens.

August 16, 2018