WordPress Web Site Development

Custom WordPress Website Development with Responsive Design for Optimum Mobile & Desktop Viewing

When the largest traditional karate dojo in New England wanted to update their web presence to take full advantage of modern web standards and newer mobile devices they turned to DreamLight for custom WordPress website development. We had originally designed their previous HTML website some years ago. That original HTML site was state-of-the art at the time, but times change and web standards change even faster. So it is critically important to keep your web presence cutting edge to avoid being left behind.

CLIENT REPORT CARD

Quality:5-Star Gold Stars Service:5-Star Gold Stars Value:5-Star Gold Stars

“Another great job completed by Mike at DreamLight…We couldn’t be happier with the look and functionality of our web site.   It meets all of our needs including, driving potential new clients to contact us and it is a great resource for our existing clients with excellent visual & video content.  We are always at the top of organic searches which is extremely important.  Thank you DreamLight!”

– Kristen K., Co-Owner, Academy of Traditional Karate

Logo Design, Corporate Identity Design & Corporate Branding

Upgrading a corporate web site is often a good time to review your corporate branding to see if it may be time to revitalize and strengthen your overall branding. In this case we started by creating a new logo design and branding upon which the new site could be based. As a separate project we also created a full corporate identity branding program including logotype, letterhead, stationery, business cards, brochures, tear sheets, corporate communications, etc. with accompanying digital templates for each. We carried this new branding onto the web with their new custom WordPress website development.

Custom WordPress Website Development vs Canned Boilerplate Template Sites

We then researched other high profile websites in their industry. Many of their competitors’ sites were based on similar templates from a typical web firm that markets the same canned templates, boilerplate copy and stock photos to as many companies in their industry that they can find. While that may be a very low cost option, it often results in a site that is virtually indistinguishable from all the competition with the only difference often being a simple name or logo change along with some other minor edits to the boilerplate text. We wanted to incorporate all the best features that such sites used, but in a more customized individual manner.

In order to help the Academy really stand out from and above all their competition on the web we designed a custom WordPress website from scratch. We first designed a web page layout based on a flexible grid format that could be built and programmed in a responsive manner for optimal viewing on everything from small mobile smart-phones through tablets and all the way to widescreen desktop computers. We created the initial designs and options in Adobe Photoshop. Once the design was finalized and approved we selected a WordPress base template that would have the base features needed for the site that we could modify and use to build their custom site. We then created a child theme to implement all the customizations and additional features required for the new site which included the following features and more.

Custom WordPress Website Features Available

  • Responsive page layout for mobile smart-phones, tablets and widescreen desktop computers
  • Custom drop-down menus
  • Custom roll-over picture menus
  • Animated Revolution Slider page headers
  • Quick Contact Form on main pages
  • Custom Testimonials
  • Custom Staff Profiles
  • Custom Blog
  • Custom Contact Form with Google Maps integration & Contact Form 7 plugin
  • SEO customization with Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin
  • Added WordPress Security with iThemes security plugin
  • WordPress installation and configuration included
  • Ongoing maintenance: content updates, WordPress & plugin updates available

Custom WordPress Website Development using Responsive Web Design for Optimum Mobile & Desktop Viewing

Today customers often surf the web on mobile smart phones like the iPhone and tablets like the iPad in addition to mega widescreen desktop computers. So it’s important to design your web site with a wide variety of viewing platforms in mind. Responsive web design (or adaptive web design) means that the web page being viewed detects the actual width of the viewer’s browser window and adjusts accordingly on-the-fly. This way no matter what device is being used to view your web site it is professionally designed for optimal viewing on each and every possible device format.  On desktop systems you can see a responsive design in action by resizing the browser’s window. As you make the window narrower and/or larger you’ll see the page automatically reformat itself as it detects various widths. In addition to accompanying screenshots of the Academy site, you can see such responsive design in action by resizing the browser window of the live on-line Academy website. You can also see an example of responsive design right here by resizing the browser window of this portfolio page you are currently viewing right here on DreamLight.com. Notice how the pages reformat on-the-fly as you resize the browser window from a large widescreen format all the way down to a very narrow mobile smart-phone size window.

Custom WordPress Website Development with Child Theme and Custom Fields, PHP, JavaScript, HTML & CSS

DreamLight’s custom WordPress website development often consists of starting with a base theme or WordPress template and customizing or extending that theme by creating what’s called a child theme. A WordPress child theme inherits and builds off all the functionality already built into the base theme and allows specific customizations and features tailored to your individual needs. Through custom PHP programming, custom JavaScript programming, custom HTML coding and custom CSS style sheets we can modify and extend any theme for your specific needs. We described one CCS technique we used when developing the Academy’s WordPress website, a CSS trick for creating outlined text, in our blog post CSS Tricks – Create CSS Outlined Text using CSS text-shadow Property.

Custom Fields in WordPress Backend with PHP Programming - Custom WordPress Website Development

DreamLight can also add custom fields and sections to the WordPress back end to facilitate using the new custom features designed specifically for your needs. Our custom WordPress website development always includes installation and configuration of WordPress and needed plugins onto your web host. We can even customize the server installation if necessary such as outlined in our blog post Fix for Theme Menu Options Not Saving in WordPress.

Search Engine Optimization with Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin

Hack Fix for Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin

One of the primary pitfalls that can impair a great website is if nobody can find it. If nobody is looking at it, it won’t matter how great it is. One of the most common ways that people find your website is through a search engine such as Google. DreamLight offers a full range of SEO Search Engine Optimization options. The best way to drive SEO is through quality targeted web content such as blog posts, white papers, tutorials, tips & tricks, etc. We can help you plan and build such quality targeted web content to help boost your SEO ratings. We install, configure and utilize the great WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast which helps focus and score your SEO efforts. In fact we even tracked down and fixed a few bugs in the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin as outlined in our blog post Hack Fix for Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin.

DreamLight can boost your organic search engine optimization (SEO) to rocket to first place on Google and other search engines. Here are a few examples (as of 05/17/18). Click the following links and scroll down below the paid ads to see the organic search results.

Academy of Traditional Karate SEO Organic Search Results

DreamLight.com SEO Organic Search Results

DreamLight Web Design Tips that Stand the Test of Time

Basic Web Design Tips Stand the Test of Time - Custom WordPress Website Development

DreamLight has decades of Web design experience going all the way back to the dawn of the World Wide Web. Enjoy our TBT post: Basic Web Design Tips that Stand the Test of Time where we were quoted in Web design magazine articles over a decade ago with tips that are still relevant today. We started designing Web sites in the early days when they had to be hand coded in HTML. We then continued through the phase of using intermediate Web design systems like Macromedia DreamWeaver. Today we use the most popular Content Management System (CMS) WordPress.

Custom WordPress Website Development & SEO for your Company

Whether you need a brand new website for your company or you need to update an existing website to bring it up to today’s modern standards, DreamLight can deliver. We offer a broad range of web design options, from posting your existing content to a pre-built WordPress theme template to full blown custom WordPress website development. Today’s modern standards often use responsive design for optimum viewing on mobile smart phones, tablets and desktop computers along with SEO search engine optimization. All our options include installing and configuring WordPress along with any needed themes and plugins. We can also recommend a WordPress friendly hosting provider if needed and offer on going website maintenance and support. We can even bring our in-house animation expertise to bear on your project from custom 2D animated sliders all the way to 3D animated videos.

Contact us for more information about Custom WordPress Website Development or to explore your specific needs.

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