Should I Use a Slider on My Webpage? Slider Pros and Cons
So you want to use a “slider” on your webpage. But should you? Find out here. What is a Slider? An image slider (or carousel) is a popular webpage feature - especially on homepages. A slider is basically a slideshow of images, text, and/or videos that may either automatically scroll or allow visitors to scroll through the content. Sliders are usually powered by JavaScript, used on the top of webpages, and automatically advance at time intervals. But, like most popular webpage features, there are a variety of slider solutions. You’ve probably seen sliders used before. This ecommerce store, for example, uses a slider to show off the variety of custom products they offer: Slider Pros Some trends defy explanation - the slider trend isn’t one of them. Here’s why sliders took over the web: Pro: More content in less space. Sliders, by nature, make portions of your content visible at different times. The upside to this is that you can pack a lot of content into a small space. Want to tell a visual story about your new product (but don’t want to use a lot of vertical scrolling to do so)? A slider solves this. Pro: Text on image layering without image manipulation or writing code. Before popular slider plugins layering images and text required either image manipulation or code. Sliders have eliminated this need for most users. A robust slider plugin will handle the image changes and coded functionality for you - so you can focus on design. Pro: Interactive content that draws your visitors’ attention. The best sliders give the visitors control (either through forward and back buttons or with scrolling). Such functionality makes sliders interactive. Interactive…
J.R. Snider Plumbing
J.R. Snider, Ltd has been providing professional plumbing services to the Northern Virginia region for more than three decades. From general plumbing to water heater replacement, J.R. Snider does it all. J.R. Snider has been working with an area social media expert, Michelle of Loud Mouth Social, to grow and improve their online presence. But they were in need of a couple tweaks to their WordPress website that required some professional WordPress Maintenance and Support. We’re thrilled that Michelle contacted us to help out. We’ve enjoyed collaborating on this project with J.R. Snider and Loud Mouth Social. We assisted J.R. Snider by… Changing Colors Consistent branding is important for every business to effectively reach its market across various media. J.R. Snider’s logo is primarily blue and red but their website utilized orange often as an accent color. It was natural for their website’s design to match the atmosphere of their logo. Their original developer hard coded those colors in the home page template. They could not be easily changed using additional CSS or by editing the page in the WordPress admin panel. The theme template itself needed to be edited. We carefully replaced the orange elements of their homepage with blue and red colors from their logo in order to lend greater consistency to their homepage. Adding a Page for Requesting a Quote When we began working with J.R. Snider their website lacked a dedicated form for requesting a quote. Using their criteria we designed a form for them, styled it to match their site, published a new web-page with this form, added it to their menus, and tested the form for reliability. Now J.R. Snider can receive detailed quote…
The Parenting Copywriter
Gabrielle, our own Chief Creative Officer (CCO), is The Parenting Copywriter. As Rystedt Creative’s CCO she leads our copywriting team but she still loves writing herself - especially on parenting. As her client base has grown she has focused increasingly on the parenting market. Countless businesses need to market to parents effectively. Target is focusing on millennial parents in much of their marketing, cloth diaper companies large and small market to new parents, curriculum publishers market to home-school parents, etc. Gabrielle is uniquely suited to help these companies market through her copywriting services. She herself is a parent of three children, a professional and established copywriter, and holds a degree in business. We at Rystedt Creative realized that we could market parenting copywriting services even better through a separate website dedicated to this niche. So we launched parentingcopywriter.com! parentingcopywriter.com is owned and operated by Rystedt Creative and leverages our existing copywriting team and experience. Within a week we were page one in searches for “parenting copywriter”. Today, we’re the first result in these searches. Gabrielle is indeed the Parenting Copywriter and we are excited for what’s ahead.
Medium vs WordPress
So you are thinking of starting (or restarting) a blog (by the way, if you aren't blogging yet you should be). You’ve heard of popular blogging platforms like Medium, WordPress, and HubSpot CMS. Which blogging platform should you choose? In this article we pit two of the most popular blogging platforms against one another to reveal their pros and cons. Medium vs WordPress, which is the best choice for your blog, business, or nonprofit? The answer to this question will differ for each blogger, business owner, and leader. So we're sticking to facts in this comparison and breaking the whole thing down into six rounds: Ease of Use Branding Aesthetic Monetization Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Ownership But first, what is a "blogging platform" anyway? [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Blogging Platforms In short, a blogging platform is any online software or service that makes it easier for you, the blogger or business owner, to launch and maintain a blog. The best blogging platforms make publishing posts intuitive, reading posts pleasurable, and monetizing your brand possible. Both Medium and WordPress are pro blogging platforms. They're both helping people put their great content on the screen and deliver it to readers. Medium Medium is a relative newcomer to the blogging space. Evan Williams (former CEO of Twitter and founder of another popular blogging platform, Blogger) launched Medium in 2012. Originally, Medium was branded as a publishing platform for content longer than Twitter's then 140 character limit. Medium has grown up in the six short years since then to become a well known publishing platform with a…
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
"Our organization recently contracted with Rystedt Creative to update our website. They did a great job recommending upgrades and handled the work for us. Also, because we are a non-profit, they took into consideration our limited resources for their pricing structure. We really appreciate the quick turnaround time too!" - Pastor Tom Zucconi, Holy Cross Lutheran Church Holy Cross Lutheran Church is a congregation in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod located in Dallas Texas. The congregation is currently ministering to both English and Spanish speakers of all ages through their worship services and varied programs. Holy Cross has a WordPress powered website that their staff thought could use some improvements. We worked closely with Holy Cross' staff to help them determine what about their website could be improved and what impact they could expect each improvement to have upon their online reach. Holy Cross took advantage of a free consultation call, a free website evaluation, and our free website self-evaluation tool throughout their staff decision making process. (By the way, these free resources are available to you as well. Contact us to receive your free consultation call and website evaluation.) Ultimately, Holy Cross asked us to make numerous improvements to hcdallas.org. We assisted Holy Cross by... Replacing their slider plugin Holy Cross Lutheran Church has a full width slider just below the header of their home page. They use this slider to make various announcements. Their original slider was powered by their WordPress theme. The default slider caused the page to “jump” when slides had different heights. We switched hcdallas.org to Slider Revolution, recreated their current slides using Slider Revolution, and provided them with an introductory walk through of the…
Elk Creek Designs
"Joshua at Rystedt Creative was beyond helpful when we ran into technical issues with our website. His extensive WordPress and Woocommerce knowledge helped to answer all of our web development questions. He was always available with a friendly demeanor and ready to talk us through our questions and what needed to be edited or changed on the website, and even showed us via screen-share the exact steps necessary. We greatly enjoyed working with Joshua and would recommend him to anyone!" – Mallory Olson, Elk Creek Designs and Rocket Active Gear A regular client of ours recently launched elkcreekdesigns.com. Elk Creek Designs is an e-commerce store for custom printed products. They sell everything from mugs to canvas wall art. Elk Creek Designs wanted to get their new site cleaned up and ready for Black Friday shopping but ran into a few snags in the process. We've been working with them ever since. We have assisted Elk Creek Designs by... Providing product centric graphic design Elk Creek Designs has a wealth of product images. We incorporated these images in designs for sliders and product collections. Designing Valentine's collection image pairs We combined product images that belong in the same collection to better illustrate the products found in each apparel collection. Designing slider images We also designed three new slider images for use on Elk Creek Design's homepage. Walking them through how to build some new product pages themselves Elk Creek Designs' team wanted to build out some new product pages for their Christmas products that matched other product categories on their website. Yet they were unsure if how they were doing so would work properly. We walked them through how to build…
Maryland LFL
Lutherans for Life is a national nonprofit that exists to equip Lutherans to be "Gospel motivated voices for life". LFL accomplishes this goal through publications, classes, prayer, financial assistance, and training. Despite being a national nonprofit, LFL relies on local and regional Life Chapters to engage churches, volunteers, and donors. Until 2017 the state of MD lacked an LFL presence. The majority of Lutherans in MD are not well connected with pro-life issues. Yet a large group of Baltimore area churches, pastors, and lay people got together to found the first Life Chapter in the state of MD. Thus Maryland LFL was born. MD LFL exists to equip MD Lutherans to understand, speak out on, and help their neighbors who are wrestling with issues such as: Abortion, Adoption, Bioethics, Creation, End-of-life, Family living, Post-abortion healing, Fetal development, and The Christian sexual ethic. Rystedt Creative provided MD LFL with branding and WordPress Development with features that are essential to non-profit work. Branding Design LFL already has a well established brand and logo. It was essential that MD LFL, as a regional Life Chapter, expressed that brand while also being unique. We carefully chose colors and fonts to complement LFL's existing branding while also giving it a Baltimore flare (that bright orange). Additionally, we provided MD LFL with their own version of the LFL logo so that they could easily brand themselves on and off the Web. Website Development After MD LFL's branding was established we moved on to actually building them a home on the Web with a website all their own. WordPress Theme Customization In order to keep MD LFL's costs low we chose to customize an existing WordPress theme…
Total Restoration Services
Total Restoration Services is a restoration contractor located in Hampstead Maryland that specializes in facade maintenance, above and below grade repairs, waterproofing, and more. For over a decade TRS has been restoring and repairing buildings throughout Maryland, Northern Virginia, Washington D.C, and Delaware. Their team has over 50 years of combined experience working on historic architecture, industrial buildings, residential and commercial buildings, and speciality facilities. Despite this wealth of experience, Total Restoration Services had virtually no presence online. They had built a successful business but began to wonder "How much are we missing out on by not being online?" That's an excellent question and one that they turned to us to help answer. So we began a journey with TRS to help launch a website that would give them more visibility online. Atmosphere Design Before we begin writing any code for a website we establish the atmosphere and branding for that site. Total Restoration Services came to us as an established business with an existing logo and reputation. We selected fonts, colors, and layouts that stayed consistent with their past while also bringing their company into their online future. Website Development When we began working for TRS they wanted to keep their website under budget while still getting the best product possible. In order to accomplish this they asked us to develop a site using their existing print promotional materials and project photographs. We designed their site to incorporate all of these existing elements and showcase them in the best (and most search engine optimized) fashion possible. Copywriting However, towards the end of the project, as the scheduled launch date approached, Total Restoration Services realized something important. Their print material…
Jennifer Zucconi Nutrition
Top notch service and design! Joshua took me from having zero real estate to one of the most beautiful “homes” in the virtual neighborhood! In starting my business there was so much to think about. Website development was something I knew I’d have to outsource…I had NO idea how or where to start! The first time I talked with Joshua he spent most of our conversation listening as I shared about my emerging business, my anticipated goals, and my very scattered ideas of how I envisioned my website. He’s definitely a good visionary, because he took my fuzzy ideas and transformed them into a crystal clear, and beautiful, reality! In addition to his visual creativity, his SEO expertise has helped lead many searches to my site. Joshua stayed in constant contact with me as he was building my site, and he continues to be a great resource for me while I’m up and running. He responds very promptly, answers my (many) questions completely, and has taught me how to begin using the behind-the-scenes elements of my site. I’m so glad I found Rystedt Creative! Joshua was instrumental in creating a wonderful place for me in the virtual world. Whether you’re starting from zero or you have a fixer-upper, Joshua and Rystedt Creative can create a space you’ll be so excited to invite visitors into! - Jennifer Zucconi Jennifer Zucconi is a Dallas area registered dietician and food sensitivity specialist. She contacted us to help her launch her virtual dietetics practice! When we began working with Jennifer she had no branding, logo, or website. She had all the knowledge, expertise, certifications, and (most importantly) passion. All she needed was a helping…
15 Common WordPress Mistakes Small Businesses Make (and What to Do About Them)
WordPress is a powerful content management system (CMS) that meets the needs of countless small businesses. Many small businesses launch the first version of their website themselves. You slave over it, tweak it, launch it, and sit back basking in your shiny new website's glory. Yet we all make mistakes from time to time... and too often, with the Web, we don't realize our mistakes until they've come back around to hurt us. We at Rystedt Creative have worked on small business WordPress websites for bloggers, dietitians, restoration contractors, and more. Throughout our work we've come to just expect some mistakes on websites we stubble upon, review, or work to improve. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Here they are! The 15 most common WordPress mistakes small businesses make. Try to avoid these mistakes as you build your site or improve upon it. #1. Starting With the Wrong WordPress Platform There are two ways you can build a WordPress website: WordPress.com's hosting service or WordPress.org's open source software hosted on a server of your choosing. Many small businesses looking to launch a WordPress website assume that these options are identical... they aren't. WordPress.com is the official WordPress hosting service and thus wants to provide their customers with the smoothest experience possible. In order to do so they limit what you can do with your WordPress website. Want a custom domain name? You'll need at least the Personal tier for $4/month Think you may need to edit your website's look with CSS (or have a web designer do so)? You'll need at least the…