ScottMedia - Web & Multimedia Solutions
Let's face it, your website has become the most important part of your business or brand. People now use it not only to get information, but to find your phone number, and contact you. People often judge how trustworthy a business is by viewing their website.
Here's what your website needs to be:
Fast
According to studies on Web users, more that a few seconds is an intolerable wait time. Yet most of today's websites are taking much longer than this to load. You are losing almost half your visitors if the page takes more than three seconds to load!.
Think about it: Our Internet connection speeds are faster than ever, as are our devices. If that's the case, then why are Web pages in 2024 still taking so long to show up?
There are several reasons:
- Not all networks are fast. Public networks such as cellular Internet, Hotel WiFi, or public hotspots all slow down at peak times when many people are using it.
- A Web server (computer that "hosts" the website) can slow down at peak times as well.
- Websites have become increasingly large, with thousands of lines of unused code, dozens of loaded libraries, and badly optimized images.
This means your website needs to be slim and trim, loading as quickly as possible.
The problem?
Many of todays "Web Developers" are actually not Web Developers. They know how to set up a site using a program to do it for them, or they use free services such as WordPress to do this for them, often in only a few hours. While these services can be used effectively, most of the sites that use them are not properly optimized. Plus, they quite often use free "templates" so that your site looks just like thousands of others. The code used by these services is truly "one size fits all", so there is a mountain of Web code in place for every possible scenario. Most of it is never needed or used.
A fast website needs to be optimized as much as possible. This means that images, code and script are all efficiently used. This takes knowledge and experience.
If your site is properly optimized, then it can be fast-loading no matter what kind of network it's being viewed on. And when it's faster than the other sites a Web user is looking at, it makes them more inclined to stay on yours longer.
Usable
Even a fast website can have issues if it's not usable. Links need to be easy to follow, images should not get in the way of text content, and phone numbers/contact methods should be easy to see and use. This takes knowledge and experience.
Editable
Gone are the days of tracking down your Webmaster to change a date, a picture, or a few lines of text. You want the ability to edit your own content. This is why powerful platforms like WordPress are so popular. Unfortunately, they can also be used to turn your beautiful site into an unusable mess in mere minutes. You want a professional, foolproof site, but you also need control. In the old days, a Webmaster took care of making sure your site was always running smoothly.
The systems that allow you to make changes to your site are known as CMS (Content Management Systems). In our experience with clients, CMS platforms like WordPress are overkill for the average site owner. It can often take hours of training to know how to use them. Most site owners would like to just go to a page, click edit, and make changes. Simple. But while powerful, CMS like WordPress are not always simple. Plus, if you install a bad "plug-in" or one becomes outdated, it can negatively affect your entire site or lose important functionality.
What if you could have it both ways? A "managed" site where the important parts are locked into place, but you can still change content worry-free.
A Better Solution
ScottMedia has created a simple, custom CMS that is very easy to use. Here's how it works:
- You go to your own log in page, sign in with a password, then browse your site nornally.
- An "Edit" button shows up only for you, and only when logged in. Click "Edit" on any page, edit, and save. That's it. Just like using any popular Word Processor.
- Save your changes and instantly see your page.
Because this system is built by ScottMedia, it's also customizable, so it can be molded to fit your own needs as they arise. Need a blog? No problem. Need an image gallery? No problem. All of these things can be added to the admin area of your site. Even complex database needs can be met with custom programming from ScottMedia.
Please check out the Demo Page to see how the system works.
Better Security
On a related note, sites using popular CMS like WordPress often fall prey to online hacking. Since all these sites use similar code, when someone finds a way to hack one WordPress site, they are often able to get into millions of others. With our custom CMS, hacking sometimes occurs (usually through the Web host's server or a bad password), but the attempt usually has no effect, since it can't find any of the popular CMS' code. While no site is 100% safe from hacking, our CMS eliminates a large vector used by hackers.
Accessible
Accessibility for a website means that the maximum number of users can access your site properly and use it. This means not only people with disabilities, but people on mobile devices, tablets, computers, etc, and even people with slower Internet such as rural locations and slow public WiFi. Better accessibility means more people will stay and look at what you're trying to show them, and which can in turn benefit you.
Good accessibility also helps for Search Engine Optimization, as search engines prefer clean, accessible, structured Web page content. This also takes knowledge and experience.
A website is often the first thing people see regarding your business or brand. Make sure it's done professionally and properly. Call ScottMedia today to set up a consultation.