Site Speed

How fast is your website? You can test it using the Google Page Speed tester. You will see that you get a mobile and desktop score. Site Speed and Mobile-Friendliness go hand in hand now. There are two factors that determine the speed of your site: server speed and web page load time. The speed of the server where you host your website has a big effect on how quickly your web page loads. Shared hosting can be detrimental to your site because you share server resources with others. Using server software like a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to host images can be a way to boost your page load time.

Web page load time is impacted by several factors. Themes loaded with Javascript for special effects, plugins added for functionality and images that are not optimized or that are too large for the area they are displaying in are some of the usual culprits. There are ways to optimize your WordPress and Drupal websites to minify these issues.

Mobile-friendliness

No longer is it enough to just have a responsive website. Web pages that appear on smartphone need to deliver exactly what people are searching for. Your search ranking will be different for mobile and desktop. That means being on the first page of a search page for desktop does not necessarily mean you will be on the first page if the same search is done on a smartphone.

Page load impacts sales — you need a 3-second page load on mobile devices or your conversions drop by 20% for every second more it takes to load. Can you afford for that to happen? At Paragon, we can help you optimize the mobile experience of your website to deliver a consistent and fast Web experience for your customers.

Accessibility

Your website can be viewed from all types of devices by all types of people. Websites are an important resource in all aspects of our daily lives. It is essential that sites be accessible to provide equal access and opportunities for people of all abilities. Our custom themed websites always use the best practices for accessibility. Making your website meet the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards not only meets the possible legal obligation of your company but also the user-friendly features that Google is looking for.

WordPress or Drupal 8?

The question of which content management platform you will use should be made after you have discussed the functionality you feel you need now and in the future. Both WordPress and Drupal 8 are great choices with many options for extended functionality. They have strong open source communities committed to supporting and ensuring these website platforms will be around for a long time.

Which one is right for your organization? It depends on what you are looking to do. Many Web developers will steer you in only one direction because that is the only CMS they know. We have in-house developers that can build you a custom themed website on either of these CMS platforms once that decision has been made. We are happy to discuss which option would be best for you.

Search Ranking Factors

You are probably aware of some of the simple search optimization factors that can help your website. There are plugins and modules for your site that will give you a good start on getting page titles and meta descriptions in from the start. You can help yourself by having user-friendly site navigation and accessibility built in. Making sure your images are optimized and sized appropriately for mobile devices is good for page speed. Using image alt tags and image file names are also some low hanging fruit for SEO and accessibility. Your website is the marking hub for your company. It needs constant care and attention to remain the valued asset that it is. At Paragon Digital we would be happy to help shoulder that responsibility and work with you so you can focus on other parts of your business.