TealBlue Digital

Building or redesigning a website is a big project - there's no running away from that fact. So don't jump in without a solid plan. You're going to need a strategy for the overall goals of the site, the content, the structure, the look and feel, the functionality, and a whole lot more. If you're working with a web designer, they'll guide you through all of this and let you know exactly what you're going to need and when you'll need it.

I've been on an unplanned social media hiatus because things have been soooo busy here at TealBlue HQ. Good problem to have - but I'm now trying to do a little bit of forward planning among existing client work. I'm currently taking bookings from mid-March onwards, so if you have plans for a new website this year then get in touch!

Quick intro for the newer followers: I'm Maxine and I'm a web designer and WordPress developer based in Edinburgh, UK. I design, build, fix and manage websites for all sorts of businesses and I've got 15+ years of corporate marketing experience so I can also help you with conversion copywriting, email marketing and automation too.
💻🌐✉️✏️🛠️🖥️

When I'm not doing that I'm mostly to be found acting as a taxi driver for my children, reading cookbooks of things I probably won't make, and drinking tea from giant mugs.

When you're building a website, either by yourself or with a designer or developer, it really helps to have everything ready beforehand. Unless you're paying for the professionals to produce your content, you'll need to make sure you have it all ready to go before the project starts. This includes:

⭐ BRANDING
Logo files in different formats and colourways. Colour palette with codes. Fonts. Any brand guidelines if you've worked with a brand designer.

⭐ COPY i.e. the text. ALL the text!
This often catches people out. Your designer needs you to come up with everything you want to say on the page so that they can build the design around that. As well as the body text this should also include page and section headings, calls to action, buttons, and quotes you want to use, etc.

⭐ PHOTOS & VIDEOS
Whether you have brand photography,stock photography, or a mix of both, have all of your images ready to go in high quality format.

⭐ DOWNLOADABLE FILES
If you're using a lead magnet, providing info in PDF format, or any other type of download, make sure it's complete and ready to be integrated into the site.

⭐ ANYTHING ELSE!
Whatever else your site needs, whether that's info for integrations with other software, or anything else you can think of - prepare it in advance.

It sounds like a lot and many people feel a bit overwhelmed at this stage, but a website takes a lot of work - there's no getting away from it.

Not having your content ready on time or making changes once work is underway can cause delays to your project so it pays to think about all of this upfront.

Happy Halloween! If you're trick-or-treating tonight, keep a look out for teal pumpkins.

If you spot a teal pumpkin among the sea of orange ones, you might like to know that they have a special meaning. They're used to indicate that a house is food-allergen-friendly, and that non-food treats will be given out to trick-or-treaters.

The Teal Pumpkin Project was first started in 2014 by Food Allergy Research & Education, and the campaign has since become a global movement, with thousands of homes participating each year. If you know a child with food allergies, you might want to participate.

Have you ever seen a teal pumpkin? Or do you put one out each year?

One of the most common questions I'm asked is about the difference between domains and hosting. So here's a quick explanation:

⭐ Domains and hosting are not the same - they're entirely separate (although you can buy them both from one company if you like)

⭐ Your domain is your address on the internet. The internet actually uses numerical addresses (called IP addresses) but to make it easier for us humans you buy a domain name (e.g. yourgreatwebsite .com) so people can find you easily.

⭐ Web hosting is like renting some space on the internet for your website to live. You need to pay for space on a web server that "serves" your files up for people to see.

Give me a thumbs up if that was helpful.

I see you, small business owners. Juggling all the damn things all the damn time. Balls in the air, plates spinning, wearing your many hats.

Your website is one thing that can help. It could probably be working harder for you. So could your emails. Doing more. Earning more.

Make them earn their keep by setting them up properly. Turn your website, copywriting, calls to action and emails into a well-oiled marketing machine that works FOR you.

If that's something you'd like help with, get in touch to discuss how I can help you make it happen.

When you hire a web designer to create your new website, you'll need to give them your content before they can start building.

Even if you think you know what you want to say, creating quality copy for your site can take longer than you think (and writing about yourself can cause writer's block to appear pretty quickly).

If you don't already have content, allow enough time to get it ready. Take your original estimate and double it. Now you're talking.

Just a picture of how relaxed you'll feel when your website's being taken care of by your friendly web designer 😀😂

Seriously, if you've spent hours fighting with your website, trying to make a one-size-fits-all template work for you, googlin tech issues, and getting frustrated when things don't work like they should, then it's probably not the best use of your time.

I help business owners concentrate on what they do best by building and fixing their websites. I'd love to help you too. Get in touch or see links in bio.

Very kind words from Fiona, who was fantastic to work with. You don't always need to know what you want when you're looking for a professional website. I'll help you through the process to come up with something you love.

When you 've spent time, money and effort on a new website, the last thing you want is to launch it out into the big scary internet and get nothing but tumbleweed rolling by. 😱

Truth is - a new website takes time to start appearing in search results and getting traffic on its own. Until then, you need to make traffic happen. 👍

Over on the blog I've written a handy guide to how and where to promote your website - link in bio or visit https://tealbluedigital.com/how-to-promote-your-new-website/

Wow - Q4 rocked up pretty quickly. My diary's getting pretty full for the rest of the year, so if you have a web design project you want to get started with before 2023, then please drop me a line asap!

Truth! Your website will likely get at least half its traffic from mobile devices. Depending on the nature of your business that number could be even higher. Make sure your website works perfectly and looks great on all screen sizes - or you could be losing business. I work with all my clients to make sure their websites are fully optimised to look great on any device.

I recently launched a website for a lovely lady with a lovely new business. Oldbird Publishing is an independent Scottish publishing company bringing some fab new books to the market.

Fiona from Oldbird was looking for a feminine website where she can showcase her business and link directly to Amazon to purchase the books.

We went for a soft colour scheme, lots of white space, curved edges, and a great font combo.

Check out Oldbird at https://oldbirdpublishing.com/

Happy August! We've reached the stage of the summer where I've turned into one giant freckle, despire slapping on the factor 50. Hey-ho. Sandy toes, salt in the hair, countless ice creams, glass of rose in the garden and I'm happy. Hope you're having a wonderful summer.

Truth right there ⬆️ If your website looks amazing but people can't find what they're looking for, then it's not going to work for your business.

When you build a website, you need to combine aesthetics with user experience. It's the user experience which will keep people on the site and lead them to visit more pages, learn more about what you do, and hopefully buy from you.

Happy Friday! Time to switch off and enjoy the weekend. I've been away on a much-needed break and feel like my inner calm has been restored (thank goodness for pre-scheduled content 😂). Stone cairn built by the mini-mes and me!

Lovely words from a lovely client. I worked with Mahnaz to build a website for her business mentoring services. She already had some great branding and photography which we put to good use and created a streamlined, responsive site which showcases all her fantastic products and services. Mahnaz is super-organised and was an awesome client to work with!

If you're running an e-commerce site, your shopping cart is the place that can make or break your sales. Deliver a poor experience and conversions will drop like flies.

Here are 5 easy ideas to optimise your shopping cart user experience:

⭐ Make checkout mobile friendly: this is the biggie - if it doesn't look great on your phone then people won't buy.

⭐ Include an order summary: give people the reassurance they need that they're buying exactly what they want and nothing more.

⭐ Don't use too many fields: if people have the enter their life history into your order form then lots won't complete the process.

⭐ Make paying easy: give people a choice of ways to pay and ensure your payment gateway is set up to be as smooth and simple as possible.

⭐ Include your contact details everywhere: when people know how to get in touch, they subconsciously start to trust you more and are happier parting with their details.

If you've been thinking of adding e-commerce to your site, or you need help improving your online shop then get in touch for a free chat. Link in bio! 😊

If you're looking to build, refresh, improve or fix a website, then get in touch for a free chat about how we can work together.

I'm a WordPress specialist who will help you create a website you love that works hard for your business. Find my call booking link in my bio 😊

Have you ever had a job you really loved? They don't come along that often, but when you find one it's a bit of a revelation. Work becomes, well, less like work.

Now I work for myself, it's officially the hardest I've ever worked 😂😂 but it's also the most freeing and the most rewarding 😍🤗

I know it's tempting and all too easy, but don't go chucking photos up onto your website without properly sizing them and optimising them first. Why? Because you're slowing your website down! ⏰⌛😲

Slow websites are bad for Google and bad for your visitors (who might just click off your site and onto your competitors'!)

Here are 3 easy ways to optimise your images:

⭐ Consider the image file format. Photos should be in JPG and logos or illustrations should be in PNG or SVG. However - newer formats such as WebP have smaller file sizes without loss of quality. WepP images aren't supported in all browsers (or content management systems) yet, but you might want to think about converting to them soon.

⭐ Make sure your images are the right size. If you have a small graphic which is showing as 400 pixels wide on your website, the image file you upload does not need to be 5000 pixels wide! Resize it before uploading to hugely reduce the file size.

⭐ Compress your images. All of them. Like now. Image compression is an essential step in keeping your web pages light. Use an online service such as TinyPNG, or an appropriate WordPress plugin can take care of the job for you.

If you're not sure what to do, or if you have loads of images and can't face doing this job alone, I can help! Get in touch for a free chat about improving your website loading time.