Webdesign

WordPress Customization

We believe that WordPress customized websites offer our clients the best possible options to support their professional business marketing needs.

Online Graphics builds every website to exact and custom specifications requested by our valued clients. WordPress back-end development allows the client to update their own page and graphics content long after we have delivered their final product. This helps you to save both time and money and to possibly leverage your own internal staff at the same time.

One of the most beneficial aspects of coding websites with WordPress (PHP and MySQL based site coding) is that the website becomes dynamic in nature. The content added to any WordPress website is “spidered more frequently by the GoogleBot” improving your chances of being indexed on their search engine results (“SERPS”). We also set up all of our Worpress websites to support a fully functioniong blogging platform which also supports better page ranking with Google.

There are many thousands of free plug-ins available for WordPress that add enhanced functionality to your project(s). Some of our most favourite plug-ins are: “improved include pages”, “editor extender”, “page shortcodes”, “ajax calendar with future posts”, “custom contact form”, “categories” and “event calendar”. All of these great tools will add dynamic flair to your website.

Let’s get you some “Google Juice” today!

Static XHTML and CSS

Traditional website design has most often been done using some version of HTML (“hypertext markup language”>. Over the years, the technologies that support HTML programming have become very advanced. With the new standards in website coding, professional designers can utilize the strengths of XML (extensible markup language) with those of HTML and CSS (cascading style sheets) to create some very dynamic effects using “layering”, “custom web fonts” and much more. Take a look at The Great Canadian Joke Book – www.greatcanadianjokebook.com to see many of these coding examples in use.

Online Graphics writes all of our website content using simple text editors completely from scratch for each client. The reason we do this is to ensure we follow the correct procedures that support proper “on-page SEO” (refer back to Google Juice) and W3C validated specifications. What is this “W3C” stuff anyway? This stands for “The World Wide Web Consortium” ( www.w3c.org ) and they are the governing body that determines what is considered valid page coding. But why bother? In the complicated world of computers and website browsers, many website pages will display differently depending on which version of software you currently use, what type of computer you prefer (PC, Mac, Mobile Phones or Tablet Devices like the iPad). When websites are coded using W3C validated specifications, they are more likely to display and work properly across this large range of options. Consistent delivery of your marketing message is important to your overall success. Online Graphics understands this and strives to deliver content that meets these specifications. Every website, every time.

CSS (cascading style sheets) are sometimes misunderstood and many times are misused. Online Graphics never uses “inline CSS” on our pages, rather we always used linked CSS content. This helps to support validation and Google page ranking. We also understand how to utilize proper on-page SEO coding to support your overall marketing goals. There are many website designers that do a great job of design but may not offer you such a complete business marketing package at such an affordable price. We have many great “real stories“ to share with you to help you make an informed decision.

HTML5 – Coming to a browser near you

The World Wide Web has been using a version of HTML (4.0) for several years now. With the popularity of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, internet marketing has become more challenging with the use of many new tools and strategies to broadcast your message.

HTML5 is a new way to code website pages that supports a wide range of new video types, on screen animations (without the need to use Adobe Flash) and employ many wonderful new technologies to attract new clients. But, HTML5 is not quite ready for “prime time” just yet… the main reason involves a “willingness” (actually an “ability”) by Microsoft to support this technology. For many years, the defacto standard for website animation has been Adobe Flash which does not currently work properly with iPhones and iPads.

The latest news suggests that HTML5 is working fine with: Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera website browsers. Tests using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 (Windows 7 default) has not been very successful. Microsoft is suggesting that everything should be working fine with the release of Internet Explorer 10.0 on Windows 8 operating systems but it always takes several months (if not years) for users to adopt these updates from Microsoft.

Online Graphics is targeting September 2013 as our “go live ready date” to support HTML5. When you see some of the cool tools that you can use, you too may want your website converted to HTML5. Let us know what you think… here is an active “testing link” you can use to see it in action. You need to test this using Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome or Opera and should see some issues when you use Internet Explorer 9 or earlier.

Test links for HTML5: http://html5test.com/ – AND – http://html5demos.com/

CMS (Content Management Systems) and Shopping Carts

Many companies need specific solutions for managing their online content. Online Graphics has extensive experience supporting CMS (content management systems) using industry leading software platforms like: WordPress, Magento, Joomla!, Drupal and Bitrix Systems.

There are many advantages to using these CMS solutions; you and your staff can update content in-house, you can assign administration and editing level resources at a user level and you can combine all of this to work with your current product database(s). Consider an online store… CMS is part and parcel of making any online store work effectively. Our personal favourite is Magento as it is easy to customize and support ongoing, however Drupal has many more “free plug-ins” to support a wider variety of tools.

Whatever your specific needs, we have likely been there before and worked to provide effective solutions. Drop us a line today to discuss your specific needs in more detail.

Online Graphics offer a wide range of website design services including Business Web design, Ecommerce/ online Shop development, Logo Development, CMS Development and much more. We work with many councils, SME's and self employed workers. Our quick turn around and fantastic aftersales service means that we can develop amazing websites for your business. So if you are looking for a bespoke website, ecommerce store or some logo designs then Online Graphics is for you. Call us today on 030 435 66603 and discuss your requirements with our friendly team.