Fix - Enhance - Profit!

There are 3 steps we take with new clients. Let's get right to it:

Step 1: Fix the code

When a new customer arrives and we begin conversations about how Aquarian Web Studio can help, seldomly is it “We’re doing great and just need some extra help.” Normally, it’s something more like “Our website is melting” or “We are tired of the nefarious traffic,” or “The more I do, the less this seems to work,” or “We haven’t updated our website in 5 years.”

Before you can expect your website to help your business grow, you must implement working code in a design flexible enough for your message and business but not so flimsy that it can be easily broken. Converting your site into code like this can set you up for a future of breezy updates, incremental change, and huge success.

Needing to fix the code is a normal part of website upkeep as the website ages. Standards change, improve, & adjust to life and devices in the here and now. It can be a big job if needed fixes have been ignored too long, or if the website’s software doesn’t support the goal at hand.

How does Aquarian fix website code?

Aquarian’s standards for working code are stricter than industry standards. Industry standards allow for vulnerable software to flourish while adding band-aids to secure it. Industry standards require the use of a programming language to move past two default content types. Industry standards don’t provide a path forward when it’s time to say goodbye to basic software. Aquarian can help here. Here’s how we decide what to do first:

• Is there an up-to-date version of the client’s website software and can it be easily upgraded?
• Is the software that the website is on vulnerable to attack even in up-to-date versions?
• Is the website impeding the client’s growth path?
• Is the website impeding normal marketing activities? (like updating the website)
• Is the website too slow?
• Are there features on the website that aren’t being used or need to be worked around?
• Can a logged-in administrator easily or accidentally crash the website?
• Does the website look the way the client wants it to look?
• When the client’s business grows, will the website easily handle the additional load?

Depending on the client, we may perform a WordPress Conversion to Craft CMS or ExpressionEngine - both stable, secure website content management systems that are stand-alone (no monthly fees besides regular hosting) and support extraordinary growth. We want to be ready for this when it shows up.

What’s not here (but may come after):

• How can we optimize this website for Search Engines?
• How can we make sales easier on this website?
• Can we provide better meta information for these pages?
• Can we optimize the elements on this page?
• Can we shave some time off the page load?

Fixing the code, even without huge front-end shifts, can have a positive effect in search engines right off the bat. Your website may be faster, better organized, easier to crawl, or all three. We do this first so that we’re not fixing these issues after traffic-increasing efforts have added traffic to a website without the ability to support it. A website with code that will not scale cannot be successful on a growth trajectory. However, a business with a website that is ready for traffic can positively soar with just a little effort. This is our step 2.

Step 2 - Add the enhancements

This is the part where Aquarian starts changing your website for the better. After fixing your code, and absorbing your story and mission along the way, we will have a list of enhancements to implement on your website. More details on what gets implemented to follow, but throughout, we are measuring and taking stock of results over time. Month to month, new changes are implemented, sourced, and presented for review. Month over month, we are building your audience, brand trust, and sales. Your website is an essential, central brand hub and it will reveal, through analytical data, what’s happening online for your brand and what isn’t. When we have this information in-hand, we can create highly-specific measurements and features that will reveal whom you may not yet be fully reaching, what they’re up to, and why.

What enhancements can Aquarian add?

At this stage, we will be sure that your SEO code is present and ready for content. We will eliminate unnecessary and slower code libraries that may have been added by former content management systems. We will engineer away from "code debt," and optimize in general ways for accessibility, speed, legibility, and scalability. This may include external code work or internal workflow optimization.

• Whatever your old software didn't do.
• Eliminate redundancies and "code debt."
• Update front-end design for legibility and general accessibility.
• Streamline administrative workflows.

What you'll notice:

• Boost in Organic search results based on faster performance and fewer holes in SEO coverage.
• Easier, faster website maintenance.
• Predictable administrative experiences - be creative again!
• Greater insight into potential web presence improvements.

This process breaks your online business workflow and front-end out of the confines of your previous website. Instead of having to accept the limits of blog-type software or build-your-own, your administrative processes and flows will reflect the needs of your business. What you need from your website is identified and integrated.

Step 3 - Profit!

Ironically, this stage is the most active. Successful brands remain active online.

We could also call this phase Grow! or Develop! but let’s face it, it’s time for this all to start coming back around to you. Even if it’s just a little to start.

Now that your business is experiencing enhanced results of your website efforts, it’s time to take action and deliver incredible value. Now that you are here, you have a dependable website that works for you, and you’re ready to be the business you came to us in search of being. At this point, we have some data on your clientele, what they are looking for, what you mean to them, and the efforts on your part that make a difference in their lives. Congratulations! You have arrived. It may be quiet at first - but if you continue to stay active, it won’t stay that way.

How does Aquarian support brand profit?

This phase is the most active and the most continuing. In order to stay in this phase and not ultimately fall back to phase 1, you’ll need to remain active online. What exactly does entail? Depends on the business - and this looks different for every client we help. Sometimes, these efforts look like:

• Communicate directly to clients and VIP’s with a newsletter.
• Create blog posts and distribute through multiple targeted social media channels.
• Observe shifts in follower adaptation and engagement.
• Track keywords & ongoing keyword movement.
• Use of limited time to create content while relying on your trusted partner to facilitate the online detail work.
• Reinforcement of affinity with clientele through improved communications and experiences drawn from evidence in analytical data.
• Continued strengthening of brand authority through the growth of organic search results, sales, and conversions.

We want to be your partner

Aquarian Web Studio believes in the life-affirming futures set forth by women and healers (doctors, NP’s, coaches, sound healers, energy healers) who go into business for themselves. We know why you chose that path (hey, we jumped out of jobs and created this!) and that it wasn’t easy; and we know that at a certain point, your growth and reach may outrun your own abilities to deal with tech, or people, or the big picture. We bring the energy and the chops to the technical and strategic sides - so we hope you like to chat, because we want to hear all about you. We see your drive to serve the world - and we want to serve you.