WordPress Site for Rochester Dance Lessons

Dancing with WordPress

We finishing up a new local website for Rochester Dance Lessons.  The Website was designed and developed using WordPress 4.5.2.

WP Plugins:

• Visual Composer - Drag and drop page builder
• Wordfence - Security, anti-virus, firewall
• JotForm - Contact form
• UpdraftPlus - Secure site backups
• Yoast SEO - Organic search optimization
• Sassy Social Share - Sharing tool
• Photo Gallery - Responsive image gallery
   

http://rochesterdancelessons.com

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Patrick LaJuett manages a website design agency: + LaJuett.com, where he supports clients as a Web technology consultant and search marketing strategy adviser.

A Better Google Sites Slideshow

Create an HTML5 Ready Google Sites Slideshow using Joomeo

Since Google suddenly pulled the plug on Picasa, it left me scrambling to find a replacement for the old Google+ / Picasa Flash-based slideshow gadgets.

I found a great solution to replace the "retired" Flash-based Google+/Picasa slideshows.

Joomeo features and benefits:

• Insert via Google Sites iframe gadget
• Mobile-friendly
• Device Responsive
• Non-Flash based
• HTML5 ready
• Hosted in the cloud
• HD capable
• See example below
   

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Patrick LaJuett manages a website design agency: + LaJuett.com, where he supports clients as a Web technology consultant and search marketing strategy adviser.

WordPress Site for Rockbridge Realty Group

Rockin' with WordPress

We launched a new local website this morning for Rockbridge Realty Group.  The Website was designed and developed using WordPress 4.4.2.

WP Site Specifications:

• Hosting: GoDaddy
• Theme: Spacious (Mobile-friendly)
• Plugins: WP Property, Yoast SEO, UpdraftPlus Backups, HungryFEED, Header and Footer
• Other: Dedicated IP
   

Optimization and Metrics:

• Google Search Console
• Google Analytics

Rockbridge Realty Group is a real estate brokerage firm. 

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Patrick LaJuett manages a website design agency: + LaJuett.com, where he supports clients as a Web technology consultant and search marketing strategy adviser.

Sites - Passing Google's Mobile-Friendly Test

Responsive menus, adapative columns, and 100% width images

One of the biggest benefits of a Google Site is it's built-in RWD (responsive web design) feature.

Be sure to enable the general settings... mobile checkbox: "Automatically adjust site to mobile phones".

The adaptive rendering maybe not as elegant as some WordPress themes, but the ease of set-up and rapid development is a benefit to small business owners with modest budgets.

Update: I forgot to mention a feature that I haven't seen with other platforms.  Google Sites allows you to "Preview page as viewer" and toggle between mobile | desktop views.  Very cool UI tool.

Google Sites pass the "mobile-friendly test"

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Patrick LaJuett manages a website design agency: + LaJuett.com, where he supports clients as a Web technology consultant and search marketing strategy adviser.

Google Sites for Colleges

Google Sites is a great collaborative web development tool for colleges and universities.

Here's a project we worked on with Mount Marty College in South Dakota.

Requirements:

• Rapid development
• Match existing branding
• Incorporate document library pages
• Set site-level permissions

Take a look at the "policy portal" screen capture below:

Integrated with Google Apps and mobile friendly.

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Patrick LaJuett manages a website design agency: + LaJuett.com, where he supports clients as a Web technology consultant and search marketing strategy adviser.

New Google Sites for Local Home Builder

I have done quite a few website redesigns over the past decade or so.  When taking on a new project, I suggest to customers that they utilize a content management system (CMS).  The ease of updating content (versus traditional code editing) is a huge winner for clients.

My favorite web CMS platforms are WordPress, Google Sites and DNN.  See the benefits of each here.

The Project:
This project was for a local home builder looking to modernize and expand their online presence.

Out With the Old:
The old site was something I designed a while back using MS Expression Web (html 4, CSS and JavaScript).  It was functional, but not very easy to update.

BEFORE REDESIGN - HTML4

Website before being redesigned.

In With the New:

For the new website I opted for Google Sites (, with embedded Google Drive documents, Picasa Web albums and YouTube videos.

AFTER REDESIGN - GOOGLE SITES

Google Sites for local home builder after redesign.

Let me know what you think using comment section below. - LAJ

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Patrick LaJuett manages a website design agency: + LaJuett.com, where he supports clients as a Web technology consultant and search marketing strategy adviser.