Calgary Web Design | WordPress Experts
Photo by Toni Reed
About Clio
Clio Websites (Clio Data Solutions Ltd.) is a full service web design company based out of Calgary, AB. Originally established in 2007, Clio started out as a database and software development company. We decided to focus and grow our web design and internet marketing expertise due to a high demand for these services. Most small to medium sized businesses that we service in Calgary want to know how to establish their online presence, and promote their products and services using social media.
Since 2007 we have served many clients in various industries and started to grow our expertise in responsive web design and the WordPress platform. We offer services that include responsive website design, website maintenance, WordPress development and support, and online marketing. We will cover these services in a bit more detail in the next few sections.
Responsive Web Design
What exactly is responsive web design? W3schools.com defines it as:
“… using HTML and CSS to automatically resize, hide, shrink, or enlarge, a website, to make it look good on all devices (desktops, tablets, and phones)”
There are just too many devices and resolutions that your customers might be using and you can’t afford to alienate anyone. Having a professionally designed site that performs on most devices is very important. Responsive web design used to be very challenging and difficult to accomplish. In the past few years however, responsive sites have become the norm. Most modern web development platforms and CMS systems like WordPress support responsiveness pretty much out of the box. Designing and developing beautiful and highly functioning responsive websites is our specialty.
Website Maintenance
Clio maintains several high traffic websites and CMS systems. Our company ensures that client sites are always up, secure, and backed up which eliminates data loss and minimizes risk. Although we don’t host the websites that we develop, we will manage your existing hosting provider or recommend a new provider if you don’t currently have one. We provide hosting support services and can help you transition from an existing hosting provider if they are not meeting your expectations. In a previous post we covered all you need in order to launch a new website.
For static Boostrap HTML websites we only bill clients if changes are requested or required. For WordPress sites there are several tasks (such as plugin updates) that require monthly maintenance. If you want to find out more about what our flexible website maintenance plans, please drop us a line.
Calgary WordPress Experts
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) on the planet. At Clio, we absolutely love WordPress. Most of the new custom websites that we launch are done using the WordPress platform. We have established ourselves as Calgary WordPress experts due to our proven track record and can help you every step of the way.
WordPress is a very flexible and powerful platform that offers lots of opportunities for launching your new project. We have helped clients set up e-commerce solutions, user communities, blogging and content collaboration platforms using WordPress. Most businesses want to utilize the power of WordPress as a blogging platform in order to build content and drive more traffic to their website (more on this in the next section).
Although WordPress is simple to use and launch, some clients find it overwhelming especially if they run into issues such as compatibility and performance. We love getting to the root problem and resolving WordPress issues for our clients to make sure their sites are secure and performing well.
We highly recommend the WordPress platform and can help with hosting, implementations, troubleshooting, and performance tuning. If you are looking for a Calgary AB based WordPress expert, look no further. Contact us for a free consultation today!
SEO – Online Marketing
What is online marketing or search engine optimization (SEO)? According to moz.com SEO is:
“… the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of website traffic, as well as exposure to your brand, through non-paid … search engine results.”
SEO is a huge and complex topic which often overwhelms our clients. There are a lot of online resources if you want to learn more about SEO (e.g. the moz SEO guide, and this SEO beginners guide from mangools.com). The following SEO intro video by WPBeginner and MonsterInsights is great:
Clio can help you get started on your SEO journey by advising where to focus your internet marketing efforts. We are often asked if our SEO services can make your website appear on the first page of Google. The answer is YES but this is neither cheap nor easy. Getting great SEO results and showing up on the first page on Google or Bing usually requires a combination of paid and unpaid marketing techniques. This journey usually takes time, but focus and persistence can yield great results.
We can help you simplify your SEO journey by sharing some lessons learned we have acquired over the years and helping you define your marketing strategy.
Iterative Web Design
Clio uses an iterative process when developing high quality websites. An iterative process ensures that you are involved each step of the way and that you are able to review our work and provide feedback often. There is nothing more frustrating than waiting for weeks or months and being disappointed by the end result. This is why we like to involve the customer during each phase of the project. You will get an opportunity to review our work often and provide feedback. We will be able to quickly adjust and change direction based on your feedback. We find that this results in the best possible outcome.
Our Web Design Process
Our client project engagement looks like this:
1. We start by listening to your needs and requirements. This is called the requirements gathering phase. We will ask questions such as:
- What inspired you to start your business (motivations and passions) and what sets you apart from your competition?
- What are you looking to gain from your website? Do you want to appear on search engines and local search listings?
- Do you want to sell your products or services online and / or interact with your customers?
2. Based on your responses we will start the planning phase. In the planning phase we determine what type of content and functionality is required. We will also develop a wire-frame and develop a template for your website based on your taste and preferences.
3. Once the planning phase is complete, we begin the design and development phase. During this phase, we will start loading your website with content and validating security and performance.
4. In the next stage, we start testing and validating the website with your help. We will also ensure that the site will perform to your expectations once you start receiving lots of traffic.
5. Once the testing phase is complete and you are satisfied with the results, we will launch your website.
6. The last step of the process is the support and maintenance phase. Once the site is launched we will monitor it to ensure that it’s secure and performing well for your users.
If you have questions about our process don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
Calgary Web Design and Web Development Results
Clio has helped dozens of clients successfully launch new websites and attract new customers. Our clients have successfully attracted hundreds of new leads per month and generated thousands of dollars in revenue each month using our WordPress e-commerce solutions. We have helped a Calgary small business generate thousands of visitors each month using our marketing services and social media offerings. We have also recently launched a large community site that supports thousands of users in creating and sharing content. If your goal is to have a simple online presence so your clients can find you on Google, great. But as your website and your needs change, we can help you grow.
We have also taken over and successfully executed many “website rescue projects”. Although there are many local Calgary web design companies and web designers, we constantly outwork and outperform our competition. Keep reading to find out what sets us apart from our competition.
What Sets Clio Apart
What sets Clio apart from other Calgary web design companies is that we:
- are a premier Calgary web design company with WordPress expertise,
- have years of experience helping small businesses achieve their online goals,
- have a very high customer satisfaction and retention rate (over 98%),
- spend the time to really understand your business needs and requirements,
- pride ourselves on the quality of service we provide to each and every client,
- are responsive and won’t leave you hanging for days when you need support the most,
- put a personal touch to each project to distinguish you from your competition.
FAQ’s
It really depends. We have written about this in the following post.
Absolutely. Creating your own websites is easy and we have some resources available to help you. You can find out about website builders and how to launch your own website on our blog.
We recommend WordPress usually because it allows your business to scale and utilize the power of blogging and create content to promote your business. For simple landing or informational pages a simple HTML will do the trick as well. Take a look at some of the differences between Bootstrap and WordPress websites.