Tag: cms

A New Look with WordPress Themes

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Let’s have a think about how a website looks: the layout, colours, font and styling generally. If a website is static i.e. made up of separate HTML pages, the styling is part of the page. But if your website uses a theme or template, it is much easier to change the appearance.

Our preferred Content Management System (CMS) is WordPress which uses a WordPress theme to control appearance. Simply by changing the theme, it’s possible to give your website a whole new look. The content will remain the same but will be presented in a new way. This opens up exciting new possibilities. Your website can be updated as often as you want for minimal effort. You can have seasonal changes: a Christmas theme, an Easter theme and so on. Most themes also allow a degree of customisation: background image changes, changed text colours or similar.

WordPres Themes are available for free download or to purchase at reasonable prices. For example Themify have some great contemporary designs. Or you can even have a WordPress theme created to your bespoke requirements.

So if you are tired of your old website design, it might be much easier to update than you think.

Here at Vapour Trail we create and update websites, mainly for small business. We recommend WordPress as a great business solution and we don’t charge the earth. In fact an initial consultation and a quote are completely free. There’s no pushy sales people (we literally don’t have any). We just want to meet up and find out what we can do for you.

If you need a new look, call us now 020 3129 6259 or email info@vapourtrail.biz

Featured image by Renata Salles

Your Website as a Marketing Tool

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Your website is a key marketing tool. Whenever you say “visit our website” or a potential customer searches for you online, your website will be the first thing they see. So just as a shopkeeper makes sure the windows are clean and the shop is fresh and inviting, so you need to be sure that your website is doing you proud.

Design is a matter of personal taste and you won’t please all of the people all of the time. Having said that though, if your website is badly designed, most people will ageree about that! However the obvious turn off is when you website is obviously out of date. Does it use a trick that was popular in 2007? Does it say “Last updated 11th December 2010”? Are the prices wrong? If you look at your website and it’s obviously out of date, you need to take some action.

If you have a Content Management System (CMS) you have no excuse, get on with it!

If you don’t have a CMS you will probably have to get a list together for your webmaster. If you have a good relationship with your webmaster, that’s great. But so often I hear stories of websites being run by a friend or a relative or someone that’s moved onto other things and getting updates completed is a really big hassle.

If you are sighing at this point and thinking “that’s me”, then perhaps we should talk.

A  CMS allows you to take control of your website. There’s no need to wait for and cajole a webmaster. You can do your own updates, every day if you wish. If you are working with a marketing plan or running any sort of promotional campaign, the ability to update your website content is absolutely crucial.

Is this going to cost me a lot of money is the obvious question? Absolutely not!

A website with two pages of optimised content, contact form, theme of your choice and other goodies starts from £249. The monthly cost is £10. So for the first year your fully updateable, optimised website would cost less than a cheap laptop.

Fancy a chat about CMS? Call me on 0333 123 0004

Chris

 

 

 

All About the WordPress Theme

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Websites are designed to present to the viewer in a controlled way. Headers, sidebars and footers all appear in defined places. Consistent fonts and colours will be used throughout. When the website based on WordPress, the “rules” for the appearance of the website are contained in the theme

The WordPress theme is a package of instructions that tell the browser how to display the website.

The WordPress theme is independedent of the website data, so by changing the theme, the look of the website can be completely changed.

Themes can down-loaded for free from the web, bought “off the shelf” or be created specifically for the website.

Free Themes

The biggest source for free Themes is WordPress’s own Theme Repository. At the time of writing, there are over 2000 freely available Themes for download. Any of these Themes can be used as part of our Small Business Website package. You will need to do the research and tell us which one.

There are other sources of free Themes on the web. Search for “free WordPress Themes” and follow the results.

In the course of your investigations, you may find a Premium Theme that you rather like. If you want to use that for your website, that’s fine, we wil pass on the cost of the Premium Theme.

If you want a completely original design, to reflect branding perhaps, we can provide that as a bespoke design. Once you have provided your requirements, we will be happy to quote you on creating a bespoke design.