Today is the first sunny day we have had in Kent for a very long time. The signs of Spring are slowly appearing as the daffodils are beginning to appear. With the change of seasons arriving, it got me thinking about Spring Cleaning and setting up for the coming Summer. This then got me thinking about Spring Cleaning in my work and how Spring is the perfect time to update Websites and build a website that works for future growth. So, as we enjoy this rare moment of sunshine here are my top 5 reasons to update your web presence this season.
It seems fitting as the new plant shoots are coming through that the first reason for reviewing your web presence is growth. For many of my clients their web presence is a crucial part of their business planning for the coming financial quarter. By reviewing and updating your web presence, you can ensure your website is fit for purpose.
Outdated websites are security risks (we’ll get into that) and risk losing trust with customers and clients. Making sure your website is SEO friendly and visually appealing is the first step in bringing in new customers and boosting the potential for repeat clients. Once potential customers have found your website the next step is to ensure the user experience is easy and professional, this is where my skills as a freelance website developer comes in. I will work with you and your business’ needs to create a user interface that is clean and modern. Ensuring your website is accessible and easy to navigate, supporting your clients and customers to access your services and products is a core reason to Spring Clean your online presence.
When you review your online presence this Spring, it gives us a chance to work together to bring your vision to life. Whether you want to start from scratch or revamp an existing website I will work with you to custom design a website that is developed for you. From developing online stores from scratch to updating and future proofing contact forms I am highly skilled at creating a web presence to work for your Small and Medium Enterprise. Through building high quality custom builds, you can relax and enjoy the first sunny days without worrying about your online presence.
Another reason for reviewing your online presence is security. I have written about security in other blogs so do check those out. Ensuring that your databases are GDPR compliant and that your website has regular updates is vital for staying on the right side of legislation. Data breaches are a serious risk for businesses, making sure that your data management system and data security is up-to-date and GDPR compliant is a necessary part of Spring Cleaning your web presence. I work with my clients to ensure their websites are secure, up-to-date and GDPR compliant. Using my expert knowledge of WordPress and Database Management Systems, my freelance work puts security in the heart of everything I do.
A website is for life not just for a season and Summer will be here before we know it. This is where future proofing your website comes in. If you know you are going to be scaling your business in the coming months, I will work with you to design and develop an online presence that is created with scalability as a core focus. Developing a website with business requirements in mind means ensuring backup and recovery is quick and easy. By updating your web presence, you can review your scalability and really focus on how you use your online presence to expand and grow your business.
So, there you have it: 5 reasons to Spring Clean your online presence this season. I am now going to go and enjoy the sunshine. If this blog has inspired you to Spring Clean your web presence and you’d like support to do it contact me here.
As I write this, Christmas and New Years are days away. I have so much to be thankful for this year – I redeveloped my website, started this blog and was able to bring a range of clients’ visions to life. I’ve worked with Small and Medium Enterprises to support building and maintaining their online databases and web presence. All of which made it an interesting year to be a freelance website developer and database management service. However, as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, another fresh year begins. This is where you come in.
Next year I want to use my highly skilled knowledge of full stack website development and database management to reach new clients and continue to support existing ones. So, if you’re looking for a WordPress website developer and/or database management service, here are five reasons to work with me in the New Year.
1. Attention to detail
Working with a wide range of clients, a core focus of my work is attention to detail. I want to bring your vision to life and that means make sure every detail is perfect no matter how big or small. My job is making your website run smoothly and to your specification, which takes a keen eye for detail.
2. Up to date knowledge
This year I’ve been finishing up my Master’s degree. By continuously updating my knowledge and training I can ensure I’m on the cutting edge of my field. You can rest easy knowing my skills are up-to-date with current trends and requirements.
3. Custom services
Every one of my website builds is custom designed for you. You can guarantee that my website and database work is developed with you and for you. I work with you to address problem areas and look for ways to design your website and database management for growth. Your business requirements are a core part of my work. My custom builds are created with business needs in mind from rapid backup and recovery to SEO friendly designs.
4. Highly skilled
Another reason to work with me in the New Year is that I am highly skilled. Not only is my knowledge and skills base up-to-date but I have over a decade of experience to back up my working practice. When you have a problem, I can draw on a wealth of knowledge to quickly resolve any issues.
5.Passionate about my work
Lastly, I love my work. I am passionate about what I do. I bring this love of all things technical to my day to day. From creating websites for Small and Medium Enterprises by day to CodeHarbour by night, I live and breathe websites and databases. This dedication is brought to each and every job I do, no matter how big or small.
Mince pies and festive cheer are flowing. For me the New Year approaches with new challenges, new clients and new projects. I cannot wait to talk with you and bring your ideas to life. So drop me a message and let’s talk.
Now I know the frustration of updates appearing when you are mid-Zoom meeting, but keeping your systems up to date is vital for businesses. This is where using WordPress for your website is an excellent idea. In my work as a freelance WordPress developer, I make sure that my websites are future proofed. This means they have scalability and will keep up to date with the latest patches and fixes.
A major reason to keep your website up-to-date is bad actors. “Hackers” is not just a 1990s movie with Angelina Jolie – behind the scenes vast sums of money is spent stopping data breaches and website takeovers. A core part in keeping bad actors out of the back-end of your website is ensuring that your security is up-to-date. Making sure your website is up-to-date is a bit like making sure the castle walls cannot be undermined and blown up with an orc and a flaming torch (well done if you get the Lord of the Rings reference). WordPress is designed to keep your castle walls strong and defensible.
This leads nicely into data security. You may have noticed I am a big fan of making sure my WordPress builds are GDPR compliant. If you handle client data in any form then GDPR cannot be downplayed. One way to keep your data secure and safe is to keep your security up-to-date. This is one of the most important reasons to keep your system’s security up-to-date. Data leaks can be a disaster for a Small and Medium Enterprise, meaning the involvement of official bodies and loss of customer trust and goodwill. Additionally, keeping up-to-date is not only important for GDPR and for following internal policies but in some cases impacts whether your business’ insurance policy will be honoured in the event of bad actors.
As a freelance developer I know that Small and Medium Enterprises are feeling the cost-of-living crisis. For the businesses I support, website down time costs money. This is where WordPress is ideal for website development. With automatic updates built in you know your website will be supported with little to no down time, ensuring data integrity, backup and recovery. With WordPress holding the majority share of websites you know that their updates react and answer to the demands of a modern internet landscape. You can rest easy knowing that their team is working to keep your website safe, so you can focus on your business needs and business growth.
I build websites for longevity, and to make sure your vision is realised I make sure your website is secure for the long haul. Knowing your website and data is secure means you can get on with the important work of promoting and growing your brand. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an update to do.
If you’re a Small or Medium Enterprise looking for a passionate and dedicated website and database developer to work with you to build your secure and up-to-date online presence please see my WordPress Website and Database Management services.
I genuinely love doing my job, that might sound big headed but I do. Being able to work with different clients and see their visions come to life, and watch their Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) grow and develop is genuinely rewarding. I’ve loved working in a full-stack way since I first started coding as a teenager. I am grateful to have taken that passion and drive for web development and database management and turned it into my career. If you want to see some real world development work I’ve undertaken I’ve written several blogs.
“So Alex” you might be wondering, “what is it about your work that gets you out of bed and at your desk in the morning?”
Well firstly no two jobs are the same, my work is bespoke and I create custom builds for your business. This means new challenges and rewards for each piece of custom WordPress development – from finding the perfect WordPress Plugin to ensure excellent user experience and user interface through to creating a visually appealing online presence.
Some of my clients need front-end support, looking at issues that impact things such as user engagement. This I do through the use of my wide range of skills, this includes online store development, creating contact forms and where needed building high quality websites from scratch. When working with the front-end of custom web development I work closely with my clients to ensure their vision is brought to life in a way that supports their customers and their business goals. By making the front-end of the website easy to navigate and accessible my clients are able to reach more customers and bring back repeat custom.
Whilst some customers require support with the front-end of their online presence, another aspect of my job is working with the back-end, behind the scenes part of the website. This is where I get to feel a bit like a D&D wizard (and yes I play D&D) – working to ensure the website is built to promote data integrity and data security. I work to support my clients’ business demands through regular updates and making sure that backup and recovery is possible. I am highly skilled in a wide range of software development technologies – including HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
One of my favourite types of work is website development that is full-stack, working with both the front and back end of the website. Working full-stack allows me to custom design my clients online presence, especially when starting from scratch. I can work closely to ensure that my clients business needs and goals are achieved and their vision brought to life. Building a website from the ground up gives my clients peace of mind that their online presence works within GDPR legislation and that customers’ data is secure. Building a custom website from scratch as a freelance website developer also allows me to develop a website that has scalability built in from the start. With a website developed by my bespoke services you know your business’ future growth is factored in.
I really enjoy working on websites and supporting SMEs to grow and thrive via their online presence. I think if I told teenage-me that I was doing this as my career they’d be pretty proud. If that’s not a reason to be at my desk I don’t know what is.
If you’re a Small or Medium Enterprise looking for a passionate and dedicated website and database developer to work with you to build your online presence please see my WordPress Website and Database Management services
Being a freelance developer I work with a wide range of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). From database development to creating custom website builds no two jobs are the same. I love working with SMEs to bring my clients’ business vision to life – you can read about my real life examples of work with SMEs in Kent here. I could talk about the wide and varied work I do with Small and Medium Enterprises but I will settle for my top 3 reasons why working with SMEs is brilliant as a freelance website developer.
First off every client has a vision for their business, one that I pride myself on helping to bring to life. My role as a highly skilled freelance website developer is to ensure that these visions come to life. Some of my clients are just starting out and need a website building from scratch, from the beginning we are working to create an engaging, high quality and SEO friendly online presence. Other clients have an established web presence, working with established SMEs I can be guided by the business needs and requirements of my clients’ helping organisations scale their online reach. I use my WordPress developer knowledge to ensure scalable, secure and GDPR compliant websites. Each website build is unique to your business’ needs and business forward planning – no two jobs are the same and that is why working with your vision is a firm favourite as a freelance WordPress developer.
This leads nicely into my second reason I love working with SMEs. Building unique and eye-catching websites designed with my client’s vision is a core reason I love my role as an independent website developer. Working as a full stack freelance web developer I take my client’s vision and build bespoke websites from the front and back end. Building websites to the customer’s specific business needs means that their online reach can improve. There are so many different ways to support businesses’ online presence from communications needs by improving by creating more user friendly contact forms to creating a better user experience to ensure repeat visitors to the website.
My custom website builds also ensure regular updates to make sure your website is secure. This is particularly important for anyone handling customer data or working with an online shop. I pride myself on my website building being GDPR compliant and secure. You can have peace of mind with my custom website builds.
By creating visually appealing and accessible user interfaces I support my clients to reach new audiences. Watching my client’s business go from strength to strength is a really rewarding part of my work. My WordPress Developer Services and my Database Management Services allow my clients a cost effective way to grow their online presence. By reaching more audiences and encouraging their existing customers to come back to their website, my clients business reach increases. Through my WordPress website builds my clients know their online presence is secure, scalable and frequently updated in the back end as well as user friendly, visually appealing and promotes their brand in the front end of the website.
Working with Small and Medium Enterprises I get to meet and work with so many awesome organisations and people. Each job is new and varied, whether I’m working with a regular client or a brand new SME I will work with your vision to create something unique to your business. That is why I love working with SMEs.
If you’re a Small or Medium Enterprise looking for a passionate and dedicated website and database developer to work with you to build your online presence please see my WordPress Website and Database Management services
As a freelance web developer I know that each of my clients are unique. Each business has its own challenges and strengths. So when I work on building a website for a business I work with my client’s vision and business needs. When creating SEO friendly, high quality and cost effective websites WordPress is my go to as a freelance developer. There are far too many reasons to use WordPress to talk through in one blog (a series on custom WordPress web development might need to happen!), but one of the reasons I use WordPress for my custom website builds is the versatility of the Plugins.
Allowing websites to be tailored to individual businesses’ needs and creative vision, Plugins are packages of code that allow new features and functionality to your website. For example when I work with small and medium enterprises that require an online store, WordPress Plugins are ideal. WordPress offers a wide range of free and paid Plugins supporting guarantees and returns, invoicing and packaging, wishlists and checkout functions. This means that when I build your business’ website you can be sure of a WordPress build that meets your business’ needs and requirements.
Another advantage of WordPress Plugins is their ease of use. As a freelance WordPress developer I know first hand the work and time that goes into running an independent business looking to scale and expand. No one has time to wait for long updates or complicated systems, the wide range of WordPress Plugins allows you to create a website that works for you not against you. My WordPress builds allow quick and easy changes to match your business’ long term plans and development. Each build is developed with regular updates and GDPR compliant security as standard.
The final reason for WordPress Plugins is the number of features and functionality they support. If you are looking to reach new customers or ensure existing customers become repeat customers, it’s important to have good communication. From contact forms to cross social media platform posting WordPress Plugins are a great way to keep in touch with your core target audience and wider potential market.
The final reason for WordPress Plugins is the number of features and functionality they support. If you are looking to reach new customers or ensure existing customers become repeat customers, it’s important to have good communication. From contact forms to cross social media platform posting WordPress Plugins are a great way to keep in touch with your core target audience and wider potential market.
WordPress is an excellent way to give you the peace of mind of a secure, easy to use, scalable website. If this list has made you want a WordPress website built from scratch or you’d like to scale your existing website, check out my bespoke WordPress Development. No matter how big or small your project, I am here to help you and your business grow and thrive through your online presence.
If you are old enough to remember the internet in the late 90s, you will probably remember blocky, clunky and often difficult to navigate webpages. In a time when dial-up was all we had and smartphones were still science fiction. The online world has changed beyond recognition since those halcyon days and the internet no longer arrives in the post on a shiny AOL CD.
This is all very nice and all, but why are we going on this nostalgia trip?
The reason for this trip down memory lane is a perfect introduction into why, if you are looking to grow and expand your business, revisiting your website is vital. When you start growing and expanding, your business plan may have increased revenue or expanded custom bases at the heart of it. In order to do this in the 2020s a core part of your forward planning needs to focus on your online presence. It is easy when exploring overheads and projections to forget your business’ website, however this is often your customers first impression of your organisation. Keeping your website up-to-date and supported is not just a nice thing to have but a core business requirement.
As a freelance website developer I work with small and medium enterprises to bring their websites up to the minute. There are a couple of reasons I do this, firstly from a business point of view modernised websites give an easy and accessible user experience. Through my experience with WordPress Plugins and WordPress Themes I ensure that customers’ first impressions match the brand vision of my clients. My website builds are built to make your vision come to life and create visually appealing websites that give your customers and clients confidence in your enterprise. Accessible and easy to use interfaces are some of the first steps to repeat custom; how often have you clicked off a website because it was too complicated to navigate?
The second reason for ensuring websites are maintained and up-to-date is security. I have talked in previous blogs about the need for good data handling and database management. An up to date website is vital if you are handling data and is a useful tool when examining your company’s GDPR compliance. There is however another reason to make sure your website is up to date, and that is outside bad actors and cyber attacks. We have seen recently the attacks on UK supermarkets that lead to customers’ personal data being stolen. One way that hackers access your company’s data is through outdated systems and lack of security updates – this includes through insecure web presence. In my freelance work as a web developer and database manager I work with you to make sure your website and databases are secure and working with GDPR guidelines.
I really enjoy working with businesses to revamp their web presence. It is great working with long term clients to make sure their website matches their current business needs and requirements. I take pride in building websites and databases that not only showcase my clients work but are secure and modern with accessible and easy to use user interfaces. To return to our reminiscing, while 1990s (questionable) fashion may be back and we might be nostalgic for the dial up connection scream, for your business’ web presence my bespoke services ensure it is nothing less than cutting edge.
Growing a business is an exciting time where new challenges emerge – if this blog has made you want to modernise and update your web presence and/or databases please check out my WordPress Developer work and my Database Management work. I will develop a bespoke solution for your business’ needs, so please get in touch.
For businesses looking to reach new customers and clients, one of the most logical steps is an accessible and interactive website. When looking at ways to develop your website or expanding your existing site you’re likely to quickly come across the name WordPress. It is not surprising that WordPress is a common name in website building as it holds the market share of websites – with reports of 41-61% of websites using WordPress.
“But Alex!” I hear you ask “just because everyone is using it, is it actually any good?”
My simple answer is yes. My slightly more complicated answer is – as a freelance WordPress developer, I work with various customer needs and requirements. All of my website development work has given me insight into the wonders of WordPress. If you are thinking about developing or expanding your web presence here are my five top reasons to work with WordPress.
The first reason is that WordPress is incredibly SEO friendly. SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation if you want to be formal about it) is the way in which websites are tailored to improve the rating assigned to them by Search Engines (such as Google). Ensuring your website works with SEO rather than against it supports your website to rank higher on search engine results page. The advantage of having good SEO for a business is that you have better visibility – people can find you quicker and easier – and increased organic traffic to your website – which means you don’t need to pay for additional advertising.
Next reason to use WordPress for your business’ needs is how quickly and easily it integrates with Google Analytics. The next obvious question is what is Google Analytics and why do I need WordPress to work with it? Simply put Google Analytics gives you information and data on who is accessing your website and how, giving you statistical and demographic data. When future planning and working out new target audiences for your business, Google Analytics is invaluable. Google Analytic plugins for WordPress take all the stress out of exploring who is using your website and what they are using it for. Developing your business strategy with Google Analytics and SEO in conjunction with each other helps to bring new clients and support repeat business.
If you have read last month’s blog you will already know how important web security is for businesses. My WordPress builds are created with the security of your company and data in mind. Data management is a legal requirement and WordPress ensures information passing through your website is encrypted by default. WordPress is also constantly working to keep your website secure from bad actors including firewalls and monitoring suspicious activity – keeping you safe from hackers. Lastly WordPress regularly backs up your website ensuring that if there is a power outage or natural disaster your data is secure and retrievable.
As businesses grow traffic to websites and data handled by the website increases. It is crucial that businesses plan for the future and website scalability is key. With plugins and adaptability WordPress is excellent for businesses looking to grow and scale their online presence. When looking at scalability with WordPress there are multiple options and a quick Google can leave you more confused than you were before; this is where I come in. When working with you to build your website or develop existing sites I make sure we discuss scalability to future proof your website and web presence. I can work with you to ensure that the foundations are in place to grow your business in the months and years to come.
The final reason to use WordPress for your business is WordPress has endless design possibilities. WordPress plugins and WordPress themes mean that your website can be tailored to make your vision come to life. When I build your website, I ensure that you and your business have the website you need to grow from strength to strength.
WordPress is an excellent way to give you the peace of mind of a secure, easy to use, scalable website. If this list has made you want a WordPress website built from scratch or you’d like to scale your existing website, check out my bespoke WordPress Development. No matter how big or small your project, I am here to help you and your business grow and thrive through your online presence.