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Thank you for requesting an analysis of www.thedomesticengineer.org We’ve completed our hands on review and here are all the problems, issues and opportunities that we found:

1. No site tracking code installed

This site is not tracking any website traffic. In order to really understand how users are interacting with your website, how many people are visiting and what to focus on for continued improvements it is necessary to incorporate website tracking. A tracking tool will allow you to view reports and statistics about all activity on your site in great detail. There are many different tools for this. We use and recommend Google Analytics which is completely free and easy to install.

Further reading:

• Why do I Need Google Analytics?

2. Performance issues

A fast loading site is extremely important. Site visitors and search engines expect sites to load quickly and to be able to navigate to subsequent pages without unnecessary wait times. It has been proven that visitors to sites will; visit more pages, interact with more features and even purchase more products on faster sites. In addition, many search engines, including Google, tend to rank faster loading sites higher in their search results.

The thedomesticengineer.org website is experiencing serious load time issues. Our tests showed that the website’s load time is 7.81 seconds and its Pingdom score is 87. These numbers indicate that your site is significantly slower than most other websites to the point where users are being negatively affected. Improving this metric will certainly increase user engagement and positively impact both conversion rates and search engine rankings.

To facilitate better load times, we would recommend; reviewing your choice for a hosting solution, implementing multiple levels of caching, reducing the number of images, utilizing a CDN and minifying, and concatenating scripts and stylesheets. If you have questions about any of these, please let us know.

Further reading:

• Why page speed matters
• Why improve your page speed
• Website speed matters
• Core Caching Concepts

3. Home page slider

The home page of your website features a slider / carousel which rotates through a number of pre-defined images. This feature does a nice job of showcasing a few images and messages however it may be worth considering an alternative approach. Our experience and the experience of many other web professionals has been that sliders generally do a poor job of converting visitors, have a low rate of engagement, push more valuable content lower on the page and greatly increase the page load times.

Further reading:

• Sliders Suck (Yoast)
• Sliders Suck (Brian Krogsgard)
• The problem with sliders
• Should I use a carousel?

4. WordPress out of date

The thedomesticengineer.org website is powered by WordPress but is currently one major release behind the latest version of WordPress. Keeping the software that powers your website up to date is the number one way to keep your site secure. We recommend you update immediately all of your plugins, your theme and WordPress and also assign a reminder or a responsible person to periodically ensure that all such software is kept up to date.

5. Improved use of images

The site has a nice visual appeal to it and for the most part, uses images effectively. However, several key observations were made during our review:

• A number of the images used to demonstrate the services provided are blurry and/or poorly lit or contain Photoshop flaws. Taking better photography or in some cases simply editing the images you have to enhance them will result in a much improved representation of your services and greater likelihood of engaging potential customers.
• While images are present in abundance on the home page, many of the other pages lack imagery. Especially the blog posts which lack featured images as well as any images within the articles which are otherwise quite valuable.
• There are several instances on the site where images are in place but have little or nothing to do with the surrounding content. Consider replacing with more relevant images if possible.

 

 

6. Admin user name in use

WordPress is a powerful and very secure framework for building websites. However, due to its popularity, it is often the first target for hackers who seek out sites which do not take basic precautions. One example of a basic security measure one can take is to permanently delete any user account called “admin” or “administrator” as these accounts will be the most frequently targeted by hackers attempting to break into your site. Instead, use a username that is unique to you and never share the login with anyone. This will also have the added benefit of making your content seem more personable and relevant to readers who will attribute the content to you instead of a generic “admin” user.

Conclusion

Your website is rich in content, has a responsive layout, is built on WordPress and is relatively easy to navigate. However, there are numerous opportunities to improve and a few issues that should be addressed in the short term.

We’d love to discuss these and other topics relating to your site in greater detail with you. If you would like to have a conversation with us to clarify what we’ve outlined above and elaborate further so that you can take action, please don’t hesitate to call or email us:

Phone: (517) 414-2003

Email: kyle@realbigmarketing.com

Thank you for requesting an analysis of www.uwjackson.org. We’ve completed our hands on review and here are all the problems, issues and opportunities that we found:

1. No site tracking code installed

This site is not tracking any website traffic. In order to really understand how users are interacting with your website, how many people are visiting and what to focus on for continued improvements it is necessary to incorporate website tracking. A tracking tool will allow you to view reports and statistics about all activity on your site in great detail. There are many different tools for this. We use and recommend Google Analytics which is completely free and easy to install.

Further reading:

• Why do I Need Google Analytics?

2. Text embedded in images

Years ago, in order to present users with artistically styled, visually appealing text on web pages it was standard practice to create images, which contained the text and then place those images on a site. Today, advancements in website creation tools and in web browsers provide superior alternatives. Now text can be placed on web pages and then styled to present the same visual end product but without requiring the use of images.

Here are a few reasons why it is NEVER a good idea to embed text inside images:

• Text inside images cannot be read by search engines and as a result, no SEO value is added to the page
• Images slow down the loading of your site
• People with disabilities using devices such as screen readers will not be able to read the text
• Visitors on slow connections may be unable to load the images or may simply not see them due to their slower loading times
• Text inside images cannot be auto-translated for visitors wishing to view the page in another language
• Text inside images cannot be scaled and resized appropriately based on a user’s screen size which means many visitors will struggle to read the text
• Updating the text in images requires editing the original image file, uploading it to the site and replacing an existing one which is considerably more maintenance work than just changing the text on the page
• Users who increase or decrease the zoom on their browser will see a reduction in quality and readability of the text inside images
• Maintaining aesthetic continuity across the site is more difficult when using images where the colors and fonts cannot be easily modified or inherit the styling of the rest of the site
• Users cannot select, copy and paste text that is embedded in images

On the uwjackson.org site, text can be found embedded in images in numerous places. This is a critical issue.

 

Further reading:

• Is the use of text embedded in images bad practice?
• Basics of website design and accessibility

3. Mobile usability issues

Your site does feature a responsive design. Good job! This means that the site adapts to the screen size it is being viewed on which is ideal and the standard best practice. However, simply making a site responsive is not enough. It is important to ensure that all visitors to your site are presented with content that is readable and usable, regardless of their screen size.

The uwjackson.org website does get a lot of factors right but there are still a number of usability issues present. Here are just a few worth noting:

• As mentioned in #2 above, text used inside of images is problematic. Visitors to this site on small screens will see all the images reduced greatly in size so that any text within them becomes very difficult to read. Were this text separated from an actual image, the size could be preserved and remain readable. This issue occurs in numerous places throughout the site, especially in the header and on the home page.
• The home page includes three columns of content plus a sidebar but on small screens, one column and the entire sidebar are hidden from view. This results in users being unable to view that content unless they open the site on a larger screen and also causes the site width to be wider than the screen so users can scroll horizontally and see nothing.
• No phone number can be found which is something commonly sought by users on mobile devices.

4. Performance issues

A fast loading site is extremely important these days. Site visitors and search engines expect sites to load quickly and to be able to navigate to subsequent pages without unnecessary wait times. It has been proven that visitors to sites will; visit more pages, interact with more features and even purchase more products on faster sites. In addition, many search engines including Google tend to rank faster loading sites higher in their search results.

The uwjackson.org website is not experiencing serious load time issues but there is significant room for improvement. After all, a site can’t possibly be too fast.

Our tests showed that the website’s load time is 2.73 seconds and its Pingdom score is 96. These numbers are not terrible but could also be greatly improved which would certainly increase engagement site wide.

To facilitate better load times, we would recommend first implementing multiple levels of caching, reducing the number of images, using a CDN and minifying and concatenating scripts and stylesheets to begin with. If you have questions about any of these, please let us know.

Further reading:

• Why page speed matters
• Why improve your page speed
• Website speed matters
• Core Caching Concepts

5. Home page slider

The home page of your website features a slider / carousel which rotates through a number of pre-defined images. This feature does a nice job of showcasing a few images and messages however it may be worth considering an alternative approach. Our experience and the experience of many other web professionals has been that sliders generally do a poor job of converting visitors, have a low rate of engagement, push more valuable content lower on the page and greatly increase the page load times.

Further reading:

• Sliders Suck (Yoast)
• Sliders Suck (Brian Krogsgard)
• The problem with sliders
• Should I use a carousel?

6. Separate volunteer site

The site for volunteer.uwjackson.org is separate from the uwjackson.org website. While there may be valid reasons these sites are handled separately, this does pose several issues worth considering:

• The differences between the two sites and the fact that a user will be visiting a different site when clicking on certain links is not communicated and will result in confusion. It is unclear why different sites are used and where to find information, especially when both sites have some information in common.
• The SEO value for the content on both sites is reduced as it is spread across multiple domains instead of a single domain (uwjackson.org).
• Both sites are using different content management systems which adds complexity for internal staff who wish to maintain the content and increases the difficulty for new team members to learn and help.
• Navigating from one site to the other is confusing.

All in all, it is worth considering the fact that having a single site built on the same system would be easier for staff to manage, better for search engine rankings and less confusing for users.

7. WordPress out of date

The uwjackson.org website is powered by WordPress but is currently two major releases behind the latest version of WordPress. Keeping the software that powers your website up to date is the number one way to keep your site secure. We recommend you update immediately all of your plugins, your theme and WordPress and also assign a reminder or a responsible person to periodically ensure that all such software is kept up to date.

Conclusion

Your website is rich in content, has a responsive layout, is built on WordPress and is relatively easy to navigate. However, there are numerous opportunities to improve and a few issues that should be addressed in the short term.

We’d love to discuss these and other topics relating to your site in greater detail with you. If you would like to have a conversation with us to clarify what we’ve outlined above and elaborate further so that you can take action, please don’t hesitate to call or email us:

Phone: (517) 414-2003

Email: kyle@realbigmarketing.com

Thank you for requesting an analysis of jccmi.edu. We’ve completed our hands on review and here are all the problems, issues and opportunities that we found. Technical analysis was completed with several tools including those available through pingdom.com, yslow.org, and builtwith.com. Interpretation of that data along with a comparison of the current site design to commonly accepted best practices was completed by Steve Bennett, Kyle Maurer and Joel Worsham.

Site Performance

A fast loading site is extremely important. Site visitors and search engines expect sites to load quickly and to be able to navigate to subsequent pages without unnecessary wait times. It has been proven that visitors to sites will visit more pages, interact with more features and even purchase more products on faster sites. In addition, many search engines including Google tend to rank faster loading sites higher in their search results.

The jccmi.edu website is not experiencing debilitating load time issues but there is significant room for improvement. After all, a site can’t possibly be too fast.

We tested the site for speed on Friday and today. Your website’s load time was between 5.39 and 1.98 seconds and its Pingdom score, a third party testing service, ranked your site 69 out of 100. In English, these numbers tell us that you pages load slowly, sometimes very slow.

To facilitate better load times, we would recommend first implementing multiple levels of caching, reducing the number of images and replacing them with sprites and css elements, using a content delivery network or CDN to transmit images, along with minifying and concatenating scripts and stylesheets to compress data transmission across the web.

Caching data would also reduce the likelihood of occurrences such as this which we encountered several times while viewing the jccmi.edu home page:

 

As you can see in this screenshot, the data for the home page’s news and events is being dynamically generated on each page load. This results in some cases where the raw code is output to the screen briefly and then replaced with the correct data and is due to the way the data is being generated and the fact that it is not “cached”. On several visits to your home page, the correct data did not appear until more than ten seconds after the rest of the page had loaded leaving us with what you see above.

Modifying how this data is generated would address this issue but the most appropriate course of action would be to implement several layers of caching so that the data is not being dynamically generated for every single page load. If you have questions about this, please consult your webmaster and/or get in touch with us.

Further reading:

• Why page speed matters
• Why improve your page speed
• Website speed matters
• Core Caching Concepts

User Experience (UX)

Website Slider Usage

Perhaps one of the most interesting design elements our customers ask for is a slider. It’s widely perceived as a tool that enhances the experience of the site visitor, allowing for the delivery of significant amounts of information in a very valuable space, right above the fold. What we’ve learned, and what has been proven though multiple studies, is the exact opposite. Sliders hinder usability and diminish return on investment. There are very few use cases where a quality designer would recommend their use.

Typically it comes down to the following; too many calls to action, too many ideas, too many elements, all in one space. The human mind is incapable of using this information effectively and moves on to the static elements. This doesn’t mean that a graphic can’t be prime design element which enhances the call to action. It does mean that scrolling/sliding elements are not useful in achieving the goal.

Further reading:

(Disclaimer, we did not title these articles.)

• The problem with sliders
• Should I use a carousel?
• Sliders Suck (Yoast)
• Sliders Suck (Brian Krogsgard)

Text embedded in images

Years ago we used tools like Photoshop to present artistically styled, aesthetically appealing text on web pages.  It was standard practice to create and present images containing text on a site. Today, advancements in website creation tools and web browsers provide more effective options. Now text can be placed on web pages and then styled to present the same visual end product but without requiring the use of images.

 

Here are a few reasons why it is NEVER a good idea to embed text inside images:

• Text inside images cannot be read by search engines and as a result, no SEO value is added to the page
• Images slow down the loading of your site
• People with disabilities using devices such as screen readers will not be able to read the text
• Visitors on slow connections may be unable to load the images or may simply not see them due to their slower loading times
• Text inside images cannot be auto-translated for visitors wishing to view the page in another language
• Text inside images cannot be scaled and re-sized appropriately based on a user’s screen size which means many visitors will struggle to read the text
• Updating the text in images requires editing the original image file, uploading it to the site and replacing an existing one which is considerably more maintenance work than just changing the text on the page
• Users who increase or decrease the zoom on their browser will see a reduction in quality and readability of the text inside images
• Maintaining aesthetic continuity across the site is more difficult when using images where the colors and fonts cannot be easily modified or inherit the styling of the rest of the site
  Users cannot select, copy and paste text that is embedded in images

On the jccmi.edu site, text can be found embedded in images in numerous places. This is an important issue and should be corrected.

Further reading:

• Basics of website design and accessibility
• Is the use of text embedded in images bad practice?

Mobile and Handheld

One area we found intriguing was a minimal effort exerted to make the site useful to End Users on handheld devices. It was intriguing because we see a trend indicating that over 50% of users are on hand held devices.

Making the jccmi.edu domain present differently to different screen sizes is referred to as responsive design. Responsive design has become the standard for providing one website on multiple plaftorms or devices instead of using a separate mobile site. Making sizes and shapes adjust to fit a device is powerful, but it’s not enough to simply change the way things look. It’s also prudent to understand what choices, data, and/or information are made available to each type of device. Successfully pairing these two sets of changes will provide the College and the End User with a more valuable interaction.

This is a critical change which should be addressed to improve satisfaction levels for both internal and external customers of the college.

Further reading:

• The case for responsive design
• The business case for responsive design
• Why responsive web design is important
• 6 reasons responsive design is the future

Accessibility

We ran the site with a screen reader active. The results were intriguing. The reader caught the name of the site and began to work through the header, but stopped working in the side navigation and body information. Accessibility has become a hot button and one that deserves attention. Here are some supporting articles for further thought:

• WAI Policies Related to Web Accessibility – The W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative maintains a long list of national laws policies from well over a dozen countries, plus state and provincial policies within the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
• State Accessibility Laws, Policies, and Standards – A database updated periodically by the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
• How can our school or district go about developing an accessible information technology policy? — DO-IT Knowledge Base article
• Is it reasonable to use an ad hoc approach to accessibility of electronic and information technology? — DO-IT Knowledge Base article
• Which set of web accessibility standards or guidelines should I comply with? — DO-IT Knowledge Base article

Conclusion

Your website is rich in content, but is not responsive to screen sizes. It would enhance the site visitor’s experience to determine what should be presented and how it should look on mobile/hand held devices.  

On desktop machines, the site is relatively easy to navigate. However, there are numerous opportunities to improve and a few issues that should be addressed in the short term. 

The site is built on ASP.net. WordPress has come leaps and bounds in the past 5 years. Organizations such as Spring Arbor University have migrated completely to this platform and enjoy a great deal of flexibility, not just in pricing, but also in the ability to create and manage content at the departmental and staff levels.  

We’d love to discuss these and other topics relating to your site in greater detail with you. If you would like to have a conversation with us to clarify what we’ve outlined above and elaborate further so that you can take action, please don’t hesitate to call or email us:

Phone: (517) 414-2003

Email: kyle@realbigmarketing.com