One of my clients, APEX Gymnastics School, was very happy with the general look and feel of the site I created for them a few years ago, but due to the growth of her business and the fact that more and more of her customers were going to her website first for information, we needed to set her site up so she could make changes herself from anywhere.

Since WordPress continues to become the most powerful and flexible content management system (CMS) available, it was the obvious solution.

What Was Needed

• Ability for client to quickly add announcements to home page from anywhere - this is very important for posting closings due to weather, and it allows her to make changes from home when it is convenient rather than having to be in the office.
• Ability to maintain basic look and feel of previous site and horizontal, drop down menu with individual pages for specific programs.
• Ability to edit/modify text on pages throughout the site quickly.

Making It Work

The first decision I had to make was whether to code the new WordPress site from scratch or to use another theme as a base. Brian Gardner’s Revolution Pro Business theme had so much of the structure I needed already included, it just made the most sense to use it as the base.

Next I recreated the header to accommodate the new site width and to include the phone numbers of both gym locations (one of them is brand new).

The home page is set up to display some basic information about her program and latest news. The client can easily add an announcement to the site by logging into the WordPress dashboard and creating a new “Post”.

Each navigation item on the horizontal navigation bar is either a Page or a child page (which shows up in the drop down).

All of the comment code has been removed as she is not looking for comments on the static pages. However, if she ever wants to put up a post where she wants feedback, she can. It also makes it easier to add polls, video, and photos to the site.

Pages can easily be edited, modified, added or deleted using the dashboard without the client having to know any HTML. Additionally, we added the TinyMCE Advanced plugin to give her more of the “Word”-like formatting buttons in the editor. I especially like the ability to add a data table easily - perfect for displaying class times.

On the individual pages, visitors can see the latest announcements without going to the home page and they can sign up for updates.  Additionally, there is plenty of room in the sidebar to “advertise” in house programs.

The Result

The best part about this site redesign is that I have a very happy client who is thrilled to be able to make her own changes to her site. It took us an hour of training over the phone to get her up and running - luckily she is pretty tech-savvy to start with.

What do you think? I’d love to see more examples of WordPress as a CMS, if you happen to have one! Also, you can see more sites I have created as “traditional” sites using WordPress in my archives.

When you hear the phrase “Website Optimization”, what is the first thing that comes to your thoughts? Is it how a site ranks in the search engines? How about ways to make your site more user friendly? Or how to make your site faster? Or do you think about the user experience and how to make a click turn into a lead or sale?

Regardless of which of these answers came to mind first, you were right. Each of those concepts is part of website optimization. In Andrew King’s most recent book, Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets, he methodically takes you through all aspects of website optimization from:

• Search Engine Marketing Optimization
• Pay-per-Click Optimization
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Web Page Optimization
• CSS Optimization
• AJAX Optimization
• Advanced Topics (Server Side and Client Side Optimizations)

While Website Optimization is well written with plenty of screen shots, useful graphics and case studies, this is not the kind of book that you sit down and read in an afternoon. Rather, I recommend focusing on one chapter of the book at a time - reading, understanding, then implementing the recommendations.

Andy King’s first book, Speed Up Your Site, was released in 2003, but the web landscape has changed so dramatically. His new book takes the trends, tools, and technology of today into account. For example, in 1997 the average web video was 45 seconds - but thanks to faster computers, faster connections, YouTube, Flash, MySpace and digital video cameras, the average web video in 2007 was 192 seconds. As a result, his new book contains about 10 pages on optimizing multimedia for better server and end-user experiences.

Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets, is a great reference book not only for web professionals, but anyone who wants to know how to tweak a website so it performs at its very best. You can also visit the  companion site of Website Optimization Secrets for sample chapters, chapter summaries, full-color figures, and the latest news.

A very common routine for web designers is sketch, design, code. When it comes to that first step, sketching, the absolute best tool to use is some form of graph paper. Buy it by the book or thanks to some great online resources, print any variety of graph paper as often as you need and in the quantities you need.

My favorites:

Konigi - Specifically for web designers, information architects, and other visual designers, Konigi features high-quality graph papers in a variety of formats complete with title bars and non-photo blue so you can easily remove your guides when scanning.

Incompetech - Need to get really fancy? Incompetech goes beyond your standard graph paper and has dotted paper, axonometric perspective paper, circular, asymetrical, and engineer’s paper plus many more unusual and artistic grids for unleashing your creativity.

Are you a notebook junkie? Even though it is nice to be able to print the graph paper I need one sheet at a time, I have to say I also have quite the collection on notebooks, sketch journals, and notepads floating around. My favorites are:

• Moleskine Large kraft Soft Cover Squared Cahier Journal (set of 3)
• Dot Grid Book by Behance
• Orla Kiely’s funky notebooks (you can get different paper styles)
• 5×5 Quad Ruled Composition Book, 7-7/8″x10″ RED43475

If you have any other sources for good graph or grid paper, let me know - while I love the convenience of printing it out as I need it, I definitely have a soft spot for fun and funky notebooks and sketchbooks.