Collaboration Increases Creativity

Collaboration Increases Creativity

We pride ourselves on being able to provide digital solutions of all sizes and scale for our clients. To provide the level of service expected and on time, we periodically collaborate with other creatives. Sometimes the concept of ‘outsourcing’ invokes trepidation, and we want to put your mind at ease with our process. We see collaboration with other agencies or freelancers as a win-win solution.

Outsourcing used to come with the idea of offshoring business somewhere overseas. In doing so there were language barriers, security and trust issues galore. The kind of outsourcing we do here at HeartWired does not have any of those issues. In fact, you likely will even get to meet the outsourced party during the creative process as many times they are local resources. We actually believe that this kind of collaboration increases creativity.

Why do we collaborate with our competition?


This is often a misconception, while we are all service providers there is generally enough business to share. We are competitive and the businesses or freelancers that we use would technically be the ‘competition’. Yet, if we are able to help more people in ways we could not otherwise do on our own, collaboration over competition wins every time. This allows us to serve our clients’ needs as well as build better relationships with other vendors in our area.

Outsourcing to someone else, isn’t that risky?


Unlike some web agencies, we vet our freelancers and outsource partners as if they were working for us as an employee. We will only work with or allow someone to work with one of our clients if we trust them with our business because we do. Working with only providers of service that we have done business ourselves allows us to have complete confidence to have them represent our brand. Our collaboration efforts have been tried internally before being offered to our clients.

But I want to work with someone local.


Working locally has its perks for sure. If you are located in the Northeast Florida Southeast Georgia area, it is a good chance you will get to work with someone from your area working with us. Currently, we serve clients in and around the Jacksonville area where our office is located. We also have been blessed to work with businesses and organizations throughout the United States and even globally that serve in other countries.

The misconception that if a company outsources they are shipping the work overseas is just not the way it used to be. We live in the gig economy. An economy where people provide services as a side hustle or as their own small business. These freelancers live here in the US, likely some in your own neighborhood.

What if I just don’t want to have my project outsourced?


There is a good chance that you would not even know that it was outsourced. Our partners usually serve in a capacity like that of an employee. They represent our brand, our methods, and our processes transparent to any agreement. In the situation that is simply not enough, we can accommodate a solely in-house service guarantee. This guarantee could, however, increase pricing and time for your project.

We believe the more we give the more we gain. This philosophy stands true within our outsourcing process as well. Hiring freelancers or other agencies locally we all win. They get work to do during times there may have been a lull. Our clients receive the work they hired us to do timely. Lastly, our local economy wins as small businesses and entrepreneurs are the foundation of a stable economy and when you keep it local we all win.

If you would like to learn more about the services we offer, the clients we serve, or the creatives we collaborate with give us a call or visit our website. Perhaps you too are a freelancer or agency that has the capability and interest to collaborate, we would love to hear from you as well. Or if you simply have thoughts you would like to share, we welcome your insights on how you collaborate creatively.

Never Underestimate The Influence Of Favicons.

Never Underestimate The Influence Of Favicons.

Google warned us, yet few paid attention or even knew what they were talking about, what even is a favicon?

Recently, as Google does periodically, they rolled out some changes to the way we search, or at least the way they want us to. As they explained, especially when it comes to mobile search, they want websites to be easily identified and scannable. One way of implementing this was to utilize the ever so common favicon.

So what does that even mean?

For starters, a favicon is a small image icon that represents a website or at least should. Granted there are plenty of websites that are out there that are unidentifiable in this manner and are missing said icon. If you or your web designer failed to add a favicon to your site, perhaps with Google’s prompting now is the time.

What should a favicon be exactly you ask. Well generally speaking it should be something that is a representation of either your logo or theme. This enables users to quickly recognize your site over others when either searching or in their bookmarks.

How do I best resize my logo to make a favicon?

Depending on your web application or theme, it may suggest a specific size recommendation to upload. Usually, a minimum would be 16×16 pixels to 48×48. It can also be a good practice to use various sizes so that they format and scale appropriately on different devices. That being said, best practice is to not necessarily use a 16×16 size as Google will rescale it to that size anyway.

What kind of file should the favicon be?

You can use a JPG, GIF, or PNG for most browsers without any issue. However, best practices would be to use the ICO file format to ensure all browser compatibility.

What is an ICO?

An ICO is an image file that is formatted specifically for computer icons in Microsoft Windows. ICO files can contain one or more images of different sizes, depths, and colors for appropriate scaling on various browsers and device sizes.

How can I create an ICO?

There are numerous ICO converters online that can create ICO favicon files for you for free. Many of these converters require you to set the parameters of the file sizes that you want, otherwise, they default to 256 pixels which is the maximum size. It is best practice as mentioned previously to incorporate a few variations of image sizes in the favicon file for your website.

Next steps for SEO with Favicons

According to Google the favicons and the homepage in which they reside must be crawlable. Favicons should be a representation of your brand and easily identifiable. Also, make sure that the icon is not offensive in any way or Google will set it back to a default image icon. Google has already begun penalizing sites without appropriate favicons that go against their guidelines.

If you do not currently have a favicon on your site, we might suggest that you either create one yourself, contact your designer, or of course we are happy to help as well. Google is constantly making changes to the SEO algorithms, especially when it comes to mobile searches. The next step beyond mobile search will be voice search, which we will address in an upcoming post.

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Why We Went to WordCamp Europe

Why We Went to WordCamp Europe

When the opportunity to travel to WordCamp Europe came up to speak about what we love to do, it was an easy decision.

As a web design agency, one way we love to give back is to participate in our local WordPress community through WordCamps. When the opportunity to take our passion globally at WordCamp Europe came about it took our sharing to a whole new scale.

I had the blessing to be invited by the WordCamp Europe organizers to speak about my passion for serving nonprofits as a web designer in Berlin, Germany. It’s not every day that I get an invite like that so of course, it was a resounding “yes!”

People ask me all the time, why do I speak at WordCamps? If I were to provide a one-word answer to that it would be “community”.

Whether speaking at local WordCamps of a few hundred or one as big as WordCamp Europe that had a record-setting attendance of almost three thousand. One thing remains consistent and that’s the community.

The WordPress community in which we live and love to work is open source in many ways, not simply their code. We are open and share our knowledge with one another. The WordPress framework is built on the premise of always being open source and so are the people that work with it. In addition, if you ever need help, there is always someone willing to lend a hand.

Speakers, sponsors, vendors, and attendees alike all gathered together to share with each other. Sharing their knowledge, passion, and insights on a platform we have all grown to love.

WordCamp Europe 2019 held at the Estrel Berlin Hotel and Congress Center in Berlin, Germany. From the opening remarks to the side conversations in the hallways, the venue filled with an energy that was palpable. There were 97 countries representing a global community of WordPress enthusiasts. All gathered together to share in a common thread, their love for WordPress in a way I have never seen before.

Events of this size do not happen overnight. Many months of planning and execution by the outstanding volunteers and organizers made it come off without a hitch. Their months of painstaking planning paid off.

A great deal of information shared by many fantastic speakers from all over the world from three different stages. Each one contributing their small part back into the WordPress community.

Connections made, business cards exchanged, ideas shared, and friendships created.

I had the opportunity to open up track two of day one of the conference. Above all turn a room full of strangers into friends within minutes. I shared about web design techniques that I have found to work while designing websites for nonprofits. Being able to share my passion from a stage like that was well, humbling.

stage presentation Charles Johnston WordPress for nonprofits at WCEU

An engaged audience had great questions right after my talk. We continued those conversations as we passed one another in the hall or around the vendor area or in the cafe. It was fun to read the tweets and social feedback as well.

It was amazing to watch people from all backgrounds and nationalities come together in such a global community. At HeartWired we talk about our passion for serving those who serve their local and global communities. WordCamp Europe exemplified that mantra.

As I unwind my mind from a whirlwind trip to Europe and back. One thing I can say, if the opportunity comes where I am invited again to speak at WordCamp Europe which will be in Porto, Portugal next year, or any other WordCamp out there, it would again be a resounding “Yes!”

In conclusion, I want to thank the WordCamp Europe organizers, volunteers, speakers, speaker wranglers, emcees, founders, vendors, sponsors, attendees. Without each one of you, there wouldn’t be a #WCEU!

So You Want to Create a Website

So You Want to Create a Website

Every day hundreds if not thousands of websites are launched. Blogs, stores, lead magnets, businesses and personal brands no matter the kind they all fall into the same category, an idea someone wants to visualize. So you want to create a website, here are some of the things you should know.

Start with a Plan

From a one page simple design to a labor-intensive database requiring many man-hours of development. Without a plan, you will spend unnecessary money and waste a great deal of time. Having a plan will save you and yourself, your designer or developer many moments of anguish, anger, and aggravation.

Do it Yourself?

There are many options out there for those that are ambitious and want to create their website themselves. From drag and drop website builders like Weebly or Squarespace to a bit more involved frameworks such as WordPress or Joomla, there are also custom options if you are comfortable with coding as well. The real question is are you saving money by doing it yourself? Or would you be better off to pay an expert to ultimately save you time and headaches? which would, in fact, save you more than just money in the long run.

You are Your Brand

I cannot tell you how many people get stuck trying to find just the right logo or custom URL and never get started. The best logo you have is your head-shot the best URL is your name. Okay so the first part you hopefully took with a grain of salt, but your name in a logo could work just fine. Yet, your name is the easiest brand you have to promote so if you can grab a vanity URL as it go for it! People will remember who you are long before what you do or sell.

Pick a CMS

If you are like me and you tried your hand at MLMs, you would know the first thing they teach is the value of your “list.” Same goes for your website just don’t spam people and lose your friends and family over it. Of course, as primarily a WordPress agency we would be remiss to not mention that has a fantastic CMS built right in. There are others as well such as Weebly, Squarespace and the like and while we are biased any would work, and we will be happy to move you to WordPress when you are ready.

Integrate your email

Once you have a list, even if it is just your mom, you will want to be able to notify them when you have a new blog post or perhaps a sale or special event. We recommend Constant Contact as we are certified partners and can help set you up with robust emails that get opened. There are other options as well and while we can help, you likely won’t be as happy, but that is just our own biased opinion.

Hosting Matters

There are hosting options for well any budget and need. We use and are agency partners with Flywheel which is built solely for WordPress and nothing else and we think that is awesome! We also can now offer domain and hosting options for other services as well and would be happy to share with you which hosting solution works best for you. Some things to keep in mind are things like SSL, CDN, level of support, backups, malware scanning and more but we will leave that all for perhaps another blog post or conversation.

So What is Next

Creating a website can be intimidating and a daunting task for even the technically-abled. Whether you choose to take it on yourself or choose to hire a designer, the best thing you can do for your brand is to take it online. If you are already online, perhaps it’s time to give it a fresh new look. Either way, if you need some help or just want to see where things stand, we are here to help.

Whether you want to create a website, redesign your current site, get some quality hosting solutions, email marketing, or check out your reputation online shoot us a message, send us an email or give us a call or text we are here to serve.