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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

What does your website say about your business?

Sometimes websites are just meant to be informational. And that’s okay! But when it comes to your business website, it needs to be more than that.

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While a lot of people still ask friends, colleagues, and family for recommendations for companies regarding something they need, the fact is online searches still happen, often overshadowing word-of-mouth referrals. So when someone is looking for a company in your industry, vertical, or niche, and they happy to find your website, what does your website say about you? What message is it sending?

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If your website is slow to load (especially on mobile devices and networks)…

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If it’s difficult navigate or find good information…

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If it looks like it hasn’t been updated in the past ten years…

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If it has pop-up messages flying everywhere every five seconds…

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If it unscrupulously tracks visitors in five different ways…

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That visitor is going to click the back button and very likely not come back for seconds.

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The underlying issue with all of the above scenarios is a disregard for the user experience. A great user experience should be the foundation of your website that everything else should build on. That means a good site architecture, good design, and performant code.

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It's critical to pay as much attention to your digital presence as your physical one. Otherwise, you're probably leaving money on the table. Instead, think about your customers first and go from there.

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Your business will be better for it and you'll reap the rewards in the long-term.

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ANNOUNCEMENT

New service: Unlimited Design and Development

Block 81 has offered Website Support Retainers for years and they’re a great option for businesses with occasional support or new feature needs while keeping their sites' software up to date. For clients with more involved requests or more than a few requests, something more robust is needed. I believe the new Unlimited Design/Dev Retainer will help fill that gap between the Website Support Retainer and a full design or development project.

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So what is the Unlimited Design/Dev Retainers all about? It’s just as it sounds—unlimited design or development requests for a fixed monthly fee. No more worrying about request limits or extra charges. And it works like this:

1. You submit as many requests as you need at any time.
2. You decide which one should be the one we actively work on.
3. I start working on that request to completion—with as many revisions needed to get it right.
4. Once that request is completed, it’s on to the next.

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Say goodbye to contracts, estimates, proposals, or figuring out if your next project will be within budget.

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Sounds too good to be true, right? Yeah, I get it. You can read more about the Unlimited Design/Dev Retainer on the Block 81 website. And as always, I’m happy to answer any questions in a short, 15-minute call which you can book right here.

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And if you’re ready, you can sign up right away—but act fast! I only have a few spots available at the current price.

FROM THE BLOG

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​Your Logo Needs a Visual System to Thrive​

Logos stand as iconic symbols representing companies, products, and services across the globe. They serve as the visual cornerstone of a brand's identity, encapsulating its essence and values into a single mark. Yet, while logos hold undeniable power in shaping brand perception, their impact is only fully realized when they’re integrated into a cohesive visual system.

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​Thoughts on Twitter, er, X​

While I left both my personal and business Twitter accounts open, I haven’t been active on Twitter since June 2023, when I abandoned it for good. It’s difficult to pinpoint one significant reason that I left Twitter. I think it’s a mishmash of reasons.

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​CSS: Vertically Break an Image Out of its Parent Container​

If you're a CSS pro/veteran/expert, skip this. 😉

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LINKS & HIGHLIGHTS

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​Craft 5 Released​

“Craft 5 packs hundreds of improvements, making it our biggest, most ambitious update ever.” That statement is 10,000% true. So much so that I haven’t been able to dive into Craft 5 to get familiar with it… yet. I expect to be caught up in the next couple months and ready to to upgrade a bunch of sites by September or so (which is 6 months from the release and should be plenty of time for initial bugs that got overlooked in the beta to be fully dealt with).

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​A simple explainer on federation, and what it means for Threads users​

If you didn’t (or still don’t) know the appeal of or how to use Twitter (er, X), then Mastodon and Threads may be the same. Matt Birchler gives a pretty good explainer on what federation is and how it relates to Mastodon and Threads.

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​Permira is taking Squarespace private in a $6.9 billion deal​

A private equity firm is buying Squarespace. If you know even just a little bit about private equity firms, this could be the beginning of the end for Squarespace. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but I do fully expect changes, just not necessarily good ones. 🤷‍♀️ (Official press release/announcement here.)