hssupport | Hammersmith Support

We always like highlighting our website maintenance services and the benefits they have for your business website. This month, we gave our readers a view into the Maintenance Report that our maintenance clients enjoy each month, and now we’re showcasing the Client Portal. The Portal brings the convenience of a shared dashboard right to your inbox, making site maintenance even easier. The Portal offers everything our clients need to:

Correspond with the Hammersmith Support Team
Track past reports
Send and track content or maintenance requests
View personalized content that your support specialist has created just for your business site
Stay up to date on the latest from Hammersmith

Maintenance History and Past Reports

Each month, our maintenance clients receive a detailed report about updates that have been made, the results of security scans, page view information, and more. The Portal houses all past reports, so there’s no need to dig through your email trash can to find a previous version. This section also houses all the details about which parts of the site were last updated and the most recent backup date.

Submit and Track Requests

Utilizing the maintenance package content hours has never been easier! Portal users can submit requests for content changes to the website or even questions about the site through the Portal. The request section is fantastic for keeping teams organized—all requests are listed and noted so it is clear what has been communicated and when.

Website “How To”

The Client Portal also houses videos demonstrating the basic functionality of the WordPress sites and free content you can watch at any time to get to know your site better. Additionally, maintenance clients receive content from their support specialist customized for their site.

Personalized Support

We want our clients to feel empowered, if they so choose, to make changes to their site if and when they see fit—or you can rely on Hammersmith Support to get it done. Not sure where to add an employee bio? Don’t worry, we got you. The account support specialist will upload content related to your frequent requests or things that may make things easier for you. The best part? The Hammersmith Support Portal adapts to your preferences.

Ready to Get Started?

Our team works with companies big and small and provides them with resources typically only available at larger web agencies, except we provide them with a much more personal and accessible touch.

We would love to answer your questions about your business website and talk through any challenges and possible solutions too. Schedule your complimentary 30-minute consultation, and let’s talk through your questions.

Last year Hammersmith Support launched our first ever giveaway, 3 months of maintenance for one lucky winner. And that winner was Erica Scott of Civilian Connections! Civilian Connections is a human resources company that works to connect businesses looking to hire with veteran talent.

Did you know that our maintenance packages include not only updates and lead testing, but also either 2 or 4 hours of content updates depending on the service package? After working with Civilian Connections to understand the what sorts of improvements they were looking for, we were able to put those content hours to good use by making additional changes to their site.

Updates + Security

In talking with the team at Civilian Connections, we were able to understand the issues they were having with their site. Our own evaluation showed some additional updates that needed to be made as well as upgrading the security of the site. This included platform as well as plugin updates. Each of the changes was not only important for the functionality of the site but also for usability and SEO.

Content

One of the things that Civilian Connections wanted to update was the overall site content. We were able to rework the home page content and design to make the company’s mission clearer to readers. While the messaging remained consistent and on-brand, we were able to make the wording and layout clearer and more concise to effectively convey that message. We also updated the social media buttons on each page, placing them prominently.

Upgrades

In addition to giving the overall site a good once-over, Hammersmith Support also advised adding some much-needed integrations. We tied Civilian Connections’ email sign-up to their Mailchimp account. So now when someone signs up with email, the email address is automatically loaded into their contacts, making email marketing that much easier. In addition, we added Google Analytics tracking to the site, which enables lead attribution and helps them decide where their marketing dollars will be used most effectively.

Before and After

Check out the site before and after! With some simple image changes (and all with full optimization!) as well as content clarifications, the site now functions better and is visually pleasing.

And after!

See it for yourself! Click on over Civilian Connections.

Hammersmith Support Can Help You Too!

Does reading this make you think that your site could use this kind of TLC too? Click over to our Calendly page to schedule your free 30-minute consultation and let’s talk.

And stay tuned! We are excited to make an announcement next week about our Giving Back program!

Hammersmith Support is honored and excited to announce that we are now a member of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce! Our membership was kicked off with a virtual Ribbon Cutting ceremony where Hammersmith Support was welcomed by attending members and Ambassadors.

Rooted in Arizona History

Founded in 1908 – four years before Arizona became a state – the Tempe Chamber of Commerce’s mission has been to foster community and the economy in the city of Tempe to sustain the quality of life for the residents of the city. With more than 650 businesses representing nearly 70,000 employees, TCC is committed to advocating, connecting, and promoting the businesses of Tempe.

Hammersmith Support’s Role

Hammersmith Support’s owner and founder, Heather Locke, gave a brief introduction of the company, our core values, some of the services we offer, and also explained why we love what we do. Heather answered some great questions from members about why we love WordPress and who our ideal clients might be. This was followed by a few kind words from Kelly Lorenzen of KLM Consulting and Marketing, who is also a member of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. And finally, the official (virtual) ribbon was cut!

Goals and Ideals in Alignment

We have been hearing for years from friends and business associates about how wonderful the Tempe Chamber of Commerce is and now seemed like the best time to jump right in. Our team is looking forward to joining with old friends, meeting new acquaintances, and helping this organization in its efforts to positively impact the quality of life and robust economy of the city of Tempe. Hammersmith Support’s emphasis on giving back aligns perfectly with the Tempe Chamber of Commerce’s investment in advocacy and business development working in tandem.

Thank You and Join us!

We’d like to express our gratitude to Anne Gill, Sukki Jahnke, and Ayrianna Drayton for organizing and hosting the event and to Cox Business for sponsoring this great event! If you’d like more information about how Hammersmith Support can help you, please click over to our Calendly link to book a free 30-minute consultation. And for more information about the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, take a look at their site.

Tempe Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting

Johannes Gutenberg was the German inventor who brought the printing press to Europe in the 15th century and started the printing revolution, but enough of history, today Gutenberg is a new WordPress Visual editor that is integrated into the WordPress core.

Gutenberg was officially released on December 6, 2019. The new editor is based on visual blocks and allow you to easily make rich content layouts.

When creating a new page or post, you add blocks to the content area. The blocks can be text, images, galleries, video etc. You can also add columns of content.

Each content block can be styled or have a css class applied to it.

While it’s always difficult to transition to something new, I believe Gutenberg is going to open up a lot of layout possibilities without using a lot of extra plugins or page templates. Over the next few months, I will be posting more content / demonstrations on how to use Gutenberg.

As of January 2019, PHP 5 will no longer be supported. What, pray tell, is PHP and why does this matter?

PHP is an open source programming language that is used for web development and is the language WordPress is written in.

The latest version of PHP is 7.1.20, but a lot of WordPress sites are still using version 5. This is a problem because version 5 is reaching its End-of-Life. That sounds almost like a nice vision of retirement, doesn’t it?

On the contratry, End-of-Life (EOL) in software means that a version/product will no longer be supported or maintained. This means that if any security holes are found, they will not be patched, which would put your site at risk for security breaches or plugin failures.

There are several plugins available to help you test your site to see if it’s compatible with the newest version of PHP. My personal favorite is WP Engine’s PHP compatibly checker. Once you know that your site is compatible, you would contact your host to change the PHP version or log into your hosting account to change it yourself. Make sure that you have a good, working back up of your site and databases before you make any changes.

If you are a Hammersmith Support client, never fear…this is being taken care of for you. If you need help with this, please reach out. We love helping clients keep their sites updated, secure, and running smoothly.

Disclaimer: I love WordPress so this post may be slightly biased.

WordPress Vs Wix - Which is better for your business website?

Both WordPress and Wix are solid choices for a website.

Wix is a hosted solution where you pay monthly for the hosting and site. Although the monthly cost is initially low, adding additional features can add on to the price. Wix also has beautiful templates, but the ability to customize them is limited. If you just need a simple, one-page site with limited functionality, Wix may be right for you.

WordPress is an open source platform. WordPress offers a hosted solution, but you can also run WP on your own server or hosting account. It’s estimated that WordPress powers 25% of all sites on the web. This means there is a huge community that supports and develops features and plugins. Open source also means it’s more vulnerable to hacking, so WordPress sites have to be maintained and updated regularly.

For more information about which platform is best for your business website, please see our blog WordPress and Wix Pros and Cons Lists: What’s the Best Platform for Your Business?

Website Maintenance Client Portal