Month: March 2019

As far as website development platforms go, it’s hard to beat WordPress, which will celebrate its 16^th birthday in May this year.

THE ORIGINAL & THE BEST

While there are some fabulous alternatives out there (Shopify, Wix and SquareSpace all serve their purpose), you really can’t go past WordPress for layouts, features, themes and flexibility.

WordPress powers something like 30% of all the websites in the world, making it by far the No.1 web development platform on earth. It’s definitely No.1 in our studio, where we develop most of our custom websites on WordPress.

We say 75+ million people can’t be wrong! While we can’t speak for all of them, here are the top reasons our design and development team say yes to WordPress.

1. IF IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR BILL GATES

We love that WordPress is completely democratic. The platform is suitable for bloggers, freelancers, mum and dad businesses AND many of the biggest corporate players in the world.

Just a few massive brands with WordPress sites are: Microsoft, Go Daddy, IBM, Sony Music, BBC America, Beyonce, Mercedes Benz, The Rolling Stones, Etsy and any number of news and entertainment sites.

2. IT’S FREE TO GET STARTED/IT’S INCREDIBLY COST-EFFECTIVE

While you are still required to pay for website hosting via your hosting provider, WordPress is a free platform. This means you will not be locked in to a proprietary platform that requires ongoing payment for access.

3. IT’S GENUINELY EASY TO MANAGE & CUSTOMISE

Our developers love that WordPress’s selection of plugins, layouts and themes is constantly evolving – hence why it’s the natural choice for one-man bands, small businesses, large corporations and organisations of all shapes and sizes.

One of the best things about WordPress is that it allows you to easily make changes to your own website – at your own pace and in your own time – without having to rely on your agency or another third party to do it.

Another key benefit is that it allows for easy customisation and enhancement via plugins. New functionality can easily be added at a later date if required.  

4. IT’S AN OPEN SOURCE CMS (AND THAT’S A GOOD THING!)

People are mistaken in their assumption that ‘open source’ implies your website is wide open to hackers. On the contrary. All open source means is that WordPress’ building code is free and accessible to developers. An open-source CMS in no way means that your website is vulnerable to attack. WordPress core software is audited regularly for security by hundreds of developers. 

Your developer can easily download and customise the WordPress code as required. What they need to keep in mind is that not all changes will be accepted by the WordPress team.

5. IT MAKES SEO EASY

The fact that WordPress has a responsive and highly logical design means search engines tend to prefer it. The platform is written using standard compliance high-quality code and produces semantic mark-up. For more precise search optimisation, WordPress gives each page and post unique meta tag keywords.

At Sketch Corp, we often install the WordPress Yoast SEO plugin for our clients because it provides a comprehensive solution for onsite SEO that allows you to add SEO titles, meta descriptions and meta keywords to each post and page.

6. IT LETS YOU HOST WHEREVER YOU WANT

Using WordPress means customers can host their website anywhere. Since around a third of the web is powered by WordPress, virtually any web host accommodates it. The majority of hosting plans include instant installation for WordPress CMS or already have it installed.

7. LOTS OF HELP IS AVAILABLE

If you ever find WordPress overwhelming or you get stuck, the answer will definitely be either on the WordPress community forum (which is moderated by staff) or elsewhere on the internet. So many people use this platform that you can basically just Google your question and be rewarded with a solution.

Hundreds of articles and entire websites are devoted to WordPress solutions, which means the answer you’re seeking is never far away.

– Sketch Corp.

While our trained eyes can identify a copypasta digital strategy a mile away, talking to a client the other day made us realise that not everyone is wise to this type of tactic.

So what on earth is copypasta?

Usually our team loves anything to do with pasta, but copypasta we just can’t get into. Wikipedia defines copypasta as blocks of text that individuals copy and paste across the Internet using online forums and social media– a practice often compared to spam.  

 

The most common (and highly irritating if you ask us) copypasta examples are when people guilt-trip their friends, family and followers into copying and pasting – a bit like a modern-day chain letter!

Examples of this include:

• ‘Normally I don’t do this…but if you really care you’ll copy and paste this into your feed…’
• ‘If you want good luck for 5 years or a billion dollars, just copy and paste this.’

 

Seriously, a billion? But you’d be surprised how many people do as the copypasta says.  

 

Memes – the one acceptable form of copypasta

Undoubtedly there are some very funny memes out there. With shrinking attention spans and the rise of social platforms (they’re SO user-friendly on socials) and the innate hilarity of memes, they’re perfect for quick take-up.

 

Not just for fun, memes can also be used to drive engagement, which is great because we marketers are always searching for ways to deliver a client’s message and brand strategically to their audience. Crafting content that gives customers a moment of light relief and engages them on an emotional level (when delivered properly) can result in increased brand recognition.

 

It’s worth considering that some memes have a very short shelf life – a lot shorter than your digital campaign – and that many pop culture references are more niche than we realise. That said, other copypasta memes employed for marketing purposes are beautifully simple and timeless, crossing the generational divide with ease. As always, judgment is key.