We are getting close! Very soon we will be starting to move websites from the CCMS and Framework templates into the new cuTheme.

cuTheme and the new WordPress Gutenberg admin interface are all about choice and with the migration process we are extending that idea: You will have a choice on how your site is prepped for its reconstruction in the new theme.

What are these choices? Very briefly, we will be placing all sites on a staging server (where your site cannot be viewed) where it will be made ready for moving onto the production server (i.e., the live space where it can viewed by the entire world).

Your choice is between having a clean installation or a migrated installation.

• We can create a clean installation 鈥� in other words, a blank, or empty site, for you to move your content into piece by piece
• We can execute a migrated installation of your content for you, but this will be everything on your site.

Your choice is between these two.

With the migrated installation we can currently migrate about 90% of the content on a website. We are nearly done working out the migration plan and are looking at ways to make that 100%. You will have to move the pieces we can鈥檛, and you will be responsible for cleaning up all the content.

With a clean installation, we see a huge advantage to you: the blank canvas which will enable you much more easily to cut loose any old content, any orphan pages, old events, news stories from 1996, etc. Your site will be sleek, streamlined, and beautiful, with the advantage of users finding content easily 鈥� with the same advantage extended to the Google algorithm as it searches through your pages.

In the meantime, we are researching ways to move some areas of content while leaving others blank for you to recreate using all the amazing new features which cuTheme offers. That will take away some of the tedium of rebuilding news posts, for example, and enable you to concentrate on the fun task of re-organizing your site and crafting beautiful pages with all the new bells and whistles on offer.

Watch this space for further news on our migration plan, which will be coming your way very soon.

In the meantime, there are some things that you can do to get your site ready for the migration cuTheme!

The post Choices, choices: migration planning for cuTheme appeared first on Web Services.

In the last few days of October we were alerted to a bot attack on a form on one of 杏吧原创’s hundreds of websites. Because the email account to which the form submissions were sent is not monitored, the attack went unreported for a longer period of time. In just a few days a form was submitted over 19,000 times.

Eek!

We shut the form down (it was no longer in use) and no harm was done apart from 19,000 form entries to be deleted from the database, but this is a good time to remind ourselves about why forms are subject to these attacks and how to stop them.

Why me?

Bots are let loose on a relatively frequent basis against forms on 杏吧原创’s websites. The forms they attack may seem random, but the point of these attacks is that they do not care if your form is popular or obscure. The aim of bots is to seek out fundamental flaws in a web server and exploit those vulnerabilities. John Conde, an admin at Stack Exchange’s Webmasters forum summarizes it thus:

They search for and fill in every form they can find. They’re looking for any vulnerability that they can exploit for their gain. It might be to see if they can gain access to your site or web server. It can be to compromise your form to send out spam.

It’s worth their time to do because it’s all automated. They just set their bots free and let them go about their business. Their cost is low and the potential reward is high.

(You can on the Stack Exchange forum.)

Of course, 杏吧原创 has measures in place to stop such attacks but you can add to this security with a few straightforward steps.

Stand by to repel bots!

Thankfully there are steps to take which can automatically do away with most bot attacks against your forms. Let’s take a look at how to employ these.

1. Add a reCAPTCHA field (see below) – Web Services offers a reCAPTCHA field element for all forms on sites in the 杏吧原创 template. This field – we have all seen them – enables a non-robotic user to confirm their humanity with a tick. If there is some question as to whether you are a human or not you might be asked to prove this by demonstrating you know what a traffic light or a bicycle is. We’ll ignore the fact that it’s a computer making you prove you are not a computer. For details on how to implement this fix, see below.
2. Turn off your forms if they are not in use. Although many forms are in continual use, many are seasonal or one use. For example, you may have a form which you embed in an event in order to allow users to register. You might want to use the form again next year. However, once registration is over for this year then you can go into the forms and switch if off. (See below.)
3. Ensure the admin notifications for the administrator are set to go to a real email address. If you don’t then the form can accrue tens of thousands of submissions before anyone notices. Plus any genuine submissions are missed, even if your form is not attacked by bots. To check how to add the email address, please see below.

Adding reCAPTCHA

The main way to forestall the attack of the bots is to employ a reCAPTCHA field. To add this there are a couple of steps to carry out.

1. Check your website has this feature enabled. reCAPTCHA is enabled by a license key so we switch it on as requested (partly because when we first purchased this tool we had 600 websites already). To check this, go to a form in the back end of your website and see if you can add the field. This can be seen by looking in the Advanced Fields area:

If it doesn’t appear then proceed to step 2. Otherwise, you can go to step 3.

2. If it is not there please submit a request to the ITS Service desk

3. Once it is enabled you can then add a reCAPTCHA field. Go into Forms > followed by clicking on the name of your form, click on Advanced Fields and then CAPTCHA (as in the image above).

Once you have updated the page you can see on the form that your users will need to check the box before they submit the form.

Switching off forms

When a form is not in use, you can switch it off, making it invisible to people visiting the page where it is hosted. To do so:

1. In the back end of your website, click on the聽Forms link on the left hand side.
2. You will see a list of forms, each of which has a switch button next to its name.
3. Click on the switch to turn the form off.

Once off, the form will no longer on the page.

Direct your form submissions to their rightful home

It’s important to make sure your admin notifications go to the correct email address. If you do not set the address, all submissions will go to the Web Services junk mail folder. If your form receives 20,000 bot-generated submissions, no one will know. Even if it doesn’t, all genuine submissions will be lost to the ether.

To make sure the submissions go to the correct email address:

1. Hover over the form name in the back end of your site and click on聽Notifications.
2. Click on聽Admin.
3. In the To: field, paste in your or your admin’s email address. Save the notification.

—

Now you have some methods to protect your forms from bot attack.

We will leave you with the exciting news that in cuTheme 2.0, all sites will have CAPTCHA switched on by default. Additionally, we will have some templated forms for your general needs, and all of these will have CAPTCHA switched on by default. Watch this space!

The post Defence is the best form of defence: Protecting forms on your website appeared first on Web Services.

A well-structured and user-friendly menu can make or break the user experience on your website. As a content manager, your job is to create a menu that allows people to easily find what they are looking for.

In this post, I share some best practices for creating effective website navigation. A well-thought-out menu enhances user experience which also helps you meet your website goals.

Website Menu Tips & Tricks

1. Take Inventory

Start by looking at the pages on your website. Are they organized in hierarchically? The most important pages should be at the top level and subpages beneath.

2. Define Your Website’s Structure

Next, it is time to make sure you have a clear understanding of your content and site structure. Begin by identifying the main sections or categories your website will have. For example, these could be things like 杏吧原创 Us, Programs, Services, News, and Contact. The goal is to create a logical and organized hierarchy of information.

When organizing your content, decide what the most important information is. Then work your way down. This will help you figure out what should be at the top level of your menu, and what should be nested below at the second or third level.

3. Keep your Visitors Top of Mind

Who is your main audience? Gear your navigation towards them. What are they doing when they come to your site? Think about navigating your site from their perspective. Are key things apparent and easy to find? Can you simplify even more?

4. Prioritize Content

Once you have your main sections in mind, it’s time to prioritize your content. Decide which sections or pages are the most important and should be prominent. These will form the top level of your navigation menu.

Following, are some of the critical pages typically found on 杏吧原创 sites. But note, your priorities may vary based on your website’s goals and content:

• 杏吧原创
• Programs
• Future Students
• Current Students
• Research
• News & Events
• Contact

5. Keep it Simple

Avoid overwhelming your visitors with too many menu items. Limit the number of main menu options to around 5-7 items based on importance. Too many choices can confuse users and lead to choice paralysis.

Note: Our new web theme will feature top navigation. It will be important not to have a super long menu as this prime real estate is limited.

Group sub-menu items under main headings to make it intuitive. For example:

• Talks and Workshops
  • Web Wednesday Workshops
  • Coffee Break Events
  • Training

6. Pay Attention to Order

Put the most important items first and last. According to the primary and recency effect, users remember (or notice) the first and last items the most.

Put the most important items at the start of your nav, and the least important in the middle. We recommend putting Contact at the end (or far right in a top nav), a standard location.

7. Choose Labels

Use short, clear link labels. Don鈥檛 use jargon or unfamiliar terms. What makes sense to your user? By default, WordPress takes the page name for the menu label but you can change it. For example, if your page is called “Events for Health Science Students” you can change the menu label to “Student Events” or simply “Events.”

The goal is to make it as easy as possible for your site visitors to know what they are going to get when they click a link.

8. Get users to do Something

While most of your menu is object-based (kind of like a table of contents) you may also have some action-based items. For example, a place students can click to 鈥淎pply.鈥� Consider using a special nav item for Calls to Action (CTAs) that make them stand out. for example, this could be a button on the left-hand nav bar in our cms template (see “Get Support” on the left of this site) or at the top right in our new theme.

9. Monitor and Adjust

Once your menu is live, continue to monitor user behavior and gather feedback. Ask users what they think. Analyze interactions with your navigation menu using Google Analytics. Make adjustments based on user preferences and your evolving content and site needs.

Great Menu Examples from Around 杏吧原创

• (love this minimalist approach!)
• Geography
• Sociology/Anthropology
• FPA

Need help with your menu?

Get in touch with us!

The post Menu Magic: Create a Great User Experience appeared first on Web Services.

From discontent to content

In the glamorous and dynamic world of website design, creating user-friendly and intuitive navigation is paramount. A well-organized website structure not only enhances user experience but also drives engagement and buy-in.

Enter card sorting exercises! 鈥� an invaluable technique that allows content-owners to gain insights into users’ mental models, leading to more efficient navigation and content organization.

Understanding Card Sorting

Card sorting is a user experience research method that involves sorting content items into categories to reveal patterns in how users think about information. It’s like peering into users’ minds, understanding how they group and label information naturally. By conducting card sorting exercises, you can make informed decisions about website structure.

Types of Card Sorting

1. Open Card Sorting: In open card sorting, participants categorize content items into groups they create and label. This method is excellent for generating fresh insights into how users naturally group information.
2. Closed Card Sorting: Closed card sorting involves participants sorting content items into predefined categories provided by the designer. This approach helps validate existing navigation structures and assess the clarity of labels.
3. Hybrid Card Sorting: A combination of open and closed card sorting, hybrid card sorting offers a comprehensive view. Participants both create categories and sort items into existing ones, offering a balance between creativity and validation.

Benefits of Card Sorting Exercises

1. User-Centred Design: Card sorting puts users at the centre of the design process, ensuring that the website’s structure aligns with their mental models and expectations.
2. Improved Navigation: By understanding how users naturally group and categorize information, designers can create intuitive navigation menus that guide users seamlessly through the website.
3. Label Clarity: Card sorting uncovers the language users prefer when labeling categories and items. This makes content more understandable.
4. Reduced Cognitive Load: An organized website reduces cognitive load, making it easier for users to find what they need, boosting satisfaction and engagement. (We talked about cognitive load before.)
5. Evidence-Driven Decision Making: Card sorting provides valuable data and insights that guide design decisions, minimizing guesswork and optimizing user experience. And best of all, most card sorting apps do the analysis for you!

Conducting a Card Sorting Exercise

1. Define Goals: Identify the specific research questions you want to answer. (E.g., How do we reorganize our navigation menu?)
2. Select Participants: You are supposed to choose a diverse group but you can use your department, or students. Aim for at least 15-20 participants for meaningful results.
3. Prepare Content Cards: Create digital cards representing each content item on your website.
4. Choose a Method: Decide on open, closed, or hybrid card sorting based on your goals and resources.
5. Facilitate the Exercise: Guide participants through the sorting process, encouraging them to think aloud. Collect qualitative insights on their reasoning. Most apps and online car sorting tools will do this for you.
6. Analyze Results: Look for patterns in how participants group items and label categories. Identify areas of consensus and divergence.
7. Refine Information Architecture: Use the insights gathered to refine your website’s information architecture, navigation labels, and menu structure.

Resources

There are a number of tools out there which allow free use of much of their card sorting functionality. Here are five top card sorting tools you can find online.

: Offering a free plan, this user-friendly tool includes basic card sorting and tree testing features.

: This versatile collaborative online whiteboard platform can be used for card sorting.

: The free version of this tool is easy to use and provides in-depth analysis of your responses.

: According to Maze, its “card sorting feature uncovers your users鈥� mental models with tailored, automated, and visual analytics that help you identify and share trends in no time.”

: kardSort offers an extremely easy to navigate (and free!) system.

The post Playing with a full deck: Card-sorting exercises for better web content appeared first on Web Services.

We are excited to introduce our dynamic page listing feature that is specifically intended to help our clients manage their 杏吧原创 University websites. This feature provides you with a sitemap 鈥� a comprehensive list or index of the various pages and sections within your website, to ease navigation while also enhancing your overall website management experience.

How to Use the Page Listing Feature

Using our page listing feature is an easy process, that requires only 3 simple steps to follow:

1. Log into your 杏吧原创 University web services account by visiting /webservices/wp/wp-admin/ and entering your 杏吧原创 login credentials.

2. On the left side of the screen, navigate to the dashboard and hover over the “Pages” option in the menu then select 鈥淎udit your pages鈥�.

3. A page listing will be displayed, presenting all your website’s pages in alphabetical order.

What it Offers

This feature offers several benefits, including:

鈼� Simplified Site Review: easily review and assess the structure and organization of your website through the comprehensive page listing. This provides a convenient overview of your website’s content hierarchy which allows you to make informed decisions regarding page management.

鈼� Streamlined Navigation Review: evaluate the effectiveness of your website’s navigation system by identifying the placement and accessibility of the different pages within your website.

鈼� Enhanced Website Structure Management: gain a clear understanding of your website’s structure and content distribution. In turn, this will allow you to recognize any areas that need improvement and make strategic decisions to enhance your website.

Here in Web Services, we strive to provide the tools and features necessary to effectively manage your websites. Our page listing feature, ensures that you will have a better overview of your website’s pages, allowing for efficient updates and modifications.

Interested in doing a site review? Check out our !

The post Introducing Our Dynamic Page Listing Feature appeared first on Web Services.

Did you know that WordPress has a built-in image editor? Equipped with an intuitive interface, this tool empowers you to effortlessly enhance your website’s visual content without the need for external software. In this article, we will explore all the editing options offered by WordPress’ built-in image editor, providing you with a step-by-step guide on how to make the most of this incredible feature!

• Accessing the Built-In Image Editor
• Basic Image Editing聽
• Saving an Image
• Restoring an Image

Accessing the Built-In Image Editor

WordPress’ image editor is conveniently accessible from the Media Library or directly within the editing screen of a post or page.

WordPress Media Library

1. On the backend of your website, click on Media in the left-hand menu.
2. In the Media Library, locate and click on the image you want to edit. This action will open the Edit Media screen, displaying the selected image.
3. Within the Edit Media screen, you’ll find an Edit Image button just below the image preview. Clicking on this button will launch WordPress’ built-in image editor.

WordPress Editor

1. On the backend of your website, navigate to the post or page where you want to edit an image.
2. Select Add Media. This action will open the Media Library.
3. In the Media Library, locate and click on the image you want to edit. This action will open the Edit Media screen, displaying the selected image.
4. Within the Edit Media screen, you’ll find an Edit Image button just below the image preview. Clicking on this button will launch WordPress’ built-in image editor.

Basic Image Editing

WordPress’ built-in image editor offers various editing options. In the toolbar, you can choose to crop, rotate, or flip your images. As well, you have the option to undo or redo your edits. Let’s go over these in more detail:

• Crop: The cropping tool allows you to crop images to custom dimensions. By selecting “Crop”, you’ll see an adjustable selection box overlaid on the image preview. By dragging the edges of the box, you can adjust the crop area to focus on the desired portion of the image. Once satisfied, click the “Crop” button to finalize the change.
• Rotate: The rotate tool allows you to adjust the orientation of your images. This tool has two options: “Rotate left” and “Rotate right”
  • Rotate left: This rotates your image 90 degrees in a counterclockwise direction
  • Rotate right: This rotates your image 90 degrees in a clockwise direction.
• Flip: Similar to the rotate tool, the flip tool allows you to adjust the orientation of your images, and has two options: “Flip vertical” and “Flip horizontal”
  • Flip vertical: This inverts your image (the top part of the image becomes the bottom part, and vice versa).
  • Flip horizontal: This mirrors your image (the left side of the image becomes the right side, and vice versa).
• Undo and Redo: The Undo and Redo tool enables you to revert your most recent edits. By selecting “Undo”, you can reverse the most recent change, while selecting “Redo” allows you to redo the previously undone change.

That’s not all! On the right column of the image editor, you are given the option to scale image, image crop, and adjust the thumbnail settings. Let’s go over these in more detail:

• Scale Image: This tool enables you to resize images while preserving the original aspect ratio. Enter either the width or height value, and then click “Scale” to automatically adjust the other dimension.
• Image Crop: This tool offers two options for cropping: “Aspect ratio” and “Selection”.
  • Aspect ratio: This option allows you to specify a particular aspect ratio to maintain while cropping the image. Once you have set the aspect ratio, you can then click the “Crop” button and crop out the selection you choose with the predefined ratio.
  • Selection: This option allows you to specify the size in pixels that you want to crop. Once you have set the size in pixels, you can then click the “Crop” button and it will automatically crop the selection.
• Thumbnail Settings: When you upload an image to WordPress, it automatically generates different sizes of the image. Thumbnail settings allows you to choose which image size to apply your changes to.
  • All image sizes: This option applies the changes you make to all the different sizes of images generated by WordPress, including the thumbnail size, medium size, and large size.
  • Thumbnail: Selecting this option will only apply the changes to the thumbnail image. The medium and large size image will remain unchanged.
  • All image sizes except the thumbnail: This option applies the changes to all image sizes generated by WordPress, except the thumbnail size. The medium and large sizes will be modified, while the thumbnail size will remain as it was before.

Saving an Image

After editing your image, click the Save button to apply the changes.

WordPress will save the modified version of the image and update it in the Media Library. Once the changes are saved, you can use the edited image in your WordPress posts, pages, or anywhere else within your website. The modified image will replace the original version, seamlessly integrating into your content.

Restoring an Image

WordPress itself gives you the option to restore your original image even after saving the edited image.

To restore your original image, you can follow these steps:

1. Locate the image you want to restore and select Edit Image.
2. On the right column of the image editor, open the Restore Original Image tab
3. Click on the Restore Image button

Try It Out!

Using the instructions above, you should be able to accomplish all the basics of image editing for the web. Let鈥檚 put them to the test by making a banner for a 杏吧原创 website.

1. Upload your image. You can find聽a guide to finding copyright-free images here.
2. Crop your image to the dimensions 1600px wide by 700px high.
3. Save your image.

The post Guide to WordPress’ Built-In Image Editor appeared first on Web Services.

Sprints are a defined amount of time to get the work done. When we first started with Agile, we tried a two-week sprint. That was too short. We have also tried a four-week sprint, that was too long. We have now settled happily on a three-week sprint (with one week of learning and development). This basically means that we plan out all the things we need to do in three-week chunks. The goal is to deliver incrementally: get feedback on small features, refine, and move onto the next small feature.

The Work

Work is defined in user stories. Ideally, they would be written as: 鈥淎s a (specific user) I need to do X so that I can X鈥�. This allows everyone on the team to fully understand the task at hand 鈥� what they are creating, why they are creating it, and what the intended outcome is. A good user story would also include acceptance criteria. These are all the requirements that would need to be met in order for the user story to be deemed complete.

Writing user stories takes a lot of time so we do not often write them out fully 鈥� though in a perfect world, we would.

An important thing to note: if a user story is too big to get done in three weeks that means it needs to be broken down into smaller, deliverable tasks.

The Roles

Usually in a fully functioning agile team there are many roles. As a smaller team we have two key roles that carry out key tasks.

• Product Owner: this is the person who knows the project the best. They map out the project in terms of tasks that need to get done and they know the business requirements. They write the user stories and acceptance criteria. This role is shared by Mary Kathryn (Manager, Web Services) and a Sr. Developer (each Sr. Developer is a lead on a project).
• Superhero: this is also known as a scrum master. This is a rotating role between the developers in that one developer will be the superhero for two weeks. What this means is that they will handle all dev service desk tickets that come in and they are not responsible for any sprint work during that time. Their focus is support. And running our daily standups.

The Meetings

Within the sprint there are four key types of meetings that we hold:

• Sprint planning meeting 鈥� We do these on the last Friday of learning and development week. This is where we plan out all the work, we will do over the three-week sprint. We usually have around 60 tasks that we go through.
• Daily stand-ups – We do these every morning from 9-9:15. We talk about what we did yesterday, what we will do today and anything that is blocking us from getting our task done.
• Demo 鈥� At this meeting folks get to show off the work they did, and we get feedback from clients.
• Retrospective 鈥� Here we talk about what went well in the sprint, what did not go well, and action items that we can bring into the next sprint. This is the key to continuous improvement.

Learning and Development Week

Our sprints are three weeks followed by one week of learning and development. This is where we take courses, do workshops, training, write documentation, and hold the demo/retrospective/planning meetings. We will talk more about this in a future post.

Want to learn more?

We recently hosted a Web Wednesday chat all about Agile, you can check out the recap here.

The post How we Structure our Work: Three Week Sprints appeared first on Web Services.

Alternative text, also known as alt text, is a short description of an image that is read by screen readers. With social media becoming an increasingly integral part of our daily lives, it’s important to consider the accessibility of our content.

There are three key reasons why you should start adding alt text to your social media posts:

• Accessibility: Adding alt text to social media posts makes them more accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Furthermore, providing context of the image ensures that everyone can understand the content you are sharing, regardless of their abilities.
• Discoverability: Alt text can help social media algorithms better understand and categorize your content. This can improve the visibility of your post in search results, which can ultimately increase its reach and drive more traffic to your account.
• Engagement: Improved accessibility means more people can enjoy your content. This will directly improve your engagement rate 鈥� that is, it may lead to an increase of comments, shares, or likes.

Now that you’re convinced of the importance of adding alt text, read on to learn how to do so on the four most popular social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Instagram

1. Tap the “+” icon to create a new post. Select the image you to post and edit it as you normally would.
2. After you’ve finished editing your image, tap on Advanced Settings at the bottom of the screen.
3. Scroll until you see the Write Alt Text option and tap on it 鈥� a text box will appear where you can write a description of your post (you can add a description to each image in a carousel post)
4. After you’ve finished writing your alt text, tap on Done to save it

Facebook

1. 颁濒颈肠办听笔丑辞迟辞/痴颈诲别辞听at the top of your Feed.
2. Select the photo you want to add.
3. Hover over the photo and click Edit.
4. The automatically generated text will be shown on the left side of your photo. 颁濒颈肠办听Override generated alt text聽to edit it.
5. Write your alt text in the box.聽
6. To save your alt text, click聽Save聽in the bottom left.

Twitter

1. Click on the Tweet compose button and attach your photo(s).
2. To insert descriptive text, click Add description (you can add a description to each image in a tweet).
3. After you’ve finished writing your alt text, click the Done button.

Linkedin

1. Click Start a post at the top of your LinkedIn timeline and select the image you would like to upload.
2. Click Alt.Text and write your descriptive text
3. After you’ve finished writing your alt text, click the Save button.

Congratulations 鈥� You just made the digital world a little bit more accessible for everyone! If you’re interested in learning more about web accessibility, check out our short self-guided workshop:

The post How to Add Alt Text to Social Media Posts appeared first on Web Services.

Are you struggling with creating quality content on a regular basis (especially when juggling other tasks)? Content calendars might be the solution for you. A content calendar is a planning tool that outlines your content creation and publishing schedule; it provides a visual overview of your upcoming content, and their related subtasks.

Content calendars can help with:

• Organization: A content calendar helps you to organize your content creation and distribution across different channels. This ensures that your content is relevant and aligned with your goals. By mapping out your content strategy in advance, you can ensure that your content aligns with your brand voice, messaging, and target audience.
• Planning: With a content calendar, you can plan your topics and themes in advance to avoid last-minute scrambling for content ideas. This proactive approach allows you enough time to brainstorm, research, create, and refine your content well ahead of time, minimizing the chances of publishing inconsistent content or missing deadlines.
• Collaboration: YA content calendar enables better collaboration with your team by establishing responsibilities and deadlines for everyone. By having a shared document or tool, all team members can contribute to the content creation process, share feedback, and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Ultimately, content calendars can save time and resources while ensuring that content is delivered effectively. You can make the most out of your content calendar by using the “Who, What, When, Where, Why” framework. From understanding your target audience to setting goals, this framework can guide you in creating a comprehensive content calendar.

Who: Who is your target audience and who will be creating the content? Your target audience will influence the topics, tone, and format of your content, while your content team will determine the resources and skillsets needed to produce the content.

What: What types of content will you create and what topics will you cover? This can include blogposts, videos, social media posts, email newsletters, and more. Consider the needs and interests of your target audience when deciding on your content topics.

When: When will you publish your content? This can include the frequency of your content, the days of the week, and the time that you’ll publish. Take into account any key dates or events that are relevant to your niche.

Where: Where will you publish your content? This can include platforms such as your website, or social media channels. Consider which platforms are most effective for reaching your target audience.

Why: Why are you posting? Determine your content goals and objectives. Do you want to increase website traffic, generate leads, build brand awareness, educate your audience, or something else? These goals will guide your content strategy and help you measure your success.

In conclusion, a content calendar is a vital asset for content creators, communicators, and marketers alike. It not only helps in staying organized but also assists in planning content ahead of time and enables efficient team collaboration. By using the “Who, What, When, Where, Why” framework, you can create a content calendar that aligns with your goals and resonates with your target audience.

The post The Five Ws of Creating a Content Calendar appeared first on Web Services.

Why are we talking about rubber ducks on the Web Services blog? Turns out, rubber duck debugging is an actual thing that developers do…!

As part of our Agile working process, we have daily meetings where we update each other on what we are working on. And we talk about any issues we are encountering. During a recent meeting, one of our developers said he had 鈥渞ubber ducked鈥� some code with some other developers… Hmmm, Mike, did you just say you 鈥渞ubber ducked?!鈥�

What is rubber duck debugging?

The post Quack the Code: The Power of Rubber Ducking appeared first on Web Services.