As the cobbler’s children have no shoes, so goes my own website. Where did 2015 go? It was a busy year during which I had the pleasure of working with old and new clients and forged new partnerships.

The revamp of Urgent Pets on Death Row led to a significant amount of work throughout the year. Karen Pepp, founder, is relentless when it comes to keeping things simple for the many volunteers who tirelessly update the site on a daily basis to save NYC shelter animals. We added a variety of functionality and migrated the site to a managed hosting provider. This allowed me to focus more on design and development and less on the maintenance of the site.

This decision to exit the website hosting and maintenance business has been a game changer for me. In 2015, we moved 18 sites over to managed WordPress hosting at Koomohost.com. Anthony Rodil Solis, owner of Koomohost, is my “go to” for managed WordPress hosting.  I recommend him for all of my clients to keep their sites up to date and secure. He manages email for a number of my clients as well.

I continued Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work for various clients across the country. SEO is an ongoing effort for any business owner. As Google rules change, we must adapt our approach to being found online. My clients who understand this are always a pleasure to work with. It takes time, effort and a fair amount of analysis to be found in search engines.

In May, I began working with a company based out of Pennsylvania, who are working on their company’s launch into the market. I can’t share details yet but I’ve worked with them on marketing, branding, a new website, a new SharePoint site, e-commerce, and systems workflow, acquisition, and integration. I can’t wait to share more when they launch this year.

In October, I added a new client based in Hawaii. If only my work had to be conducted onsite… But alas, a trip to Hawaii was not in the cards for me. I worked with Roxanne Bolden, Executive Director of Aloha Independent Living Hawaii and Candice Young, Executive Assistant. Their existing site was built on an outdated WordPress theme and the functionality for them to update their own content had broken. They wanted to retain the look and feel, images, and content of their existing site but also needed the ability to update content. So I re-did their site on the fabulous Genesis Prose theme and was able to meet all of their requirements. AILH is a remarkable organization that gives persons with disabilities in Hawaii the choice of where to receive independent living services.

In December, I started a redesign of SNARR Animal Rescue in Louisiana. The old site is still up at the time of this writing but the new one is pending review before going live. This organization is a sister to SNARR Northeast, both of which are 501(c)3’s dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating shelter animals. These rescues stop at nothing to help those animals who need it most. If you’re an animal lover, you should really check out their sites.

Going forward in 2016, I will continue to keep the emphasis on design and development work and migrate any remaining hosting and maintenance clients to Koomohost. Additionally, like AILH, there are a lot of websites out there that were built on themes that are no longer supported. Sites using outdated themes are vulnerable to security exploits. With outdated themes, functionality that enables site owners to update their content can vanish or become buggy. Fortunately, it’s a pretty straightforward process for me to migrate an existing site over to another platform like the Genesis Framework, and restore security and functionality while maintaining the current content and appearance. It’s also a good time for a site makeover if a new look is desired. I can’t wait to give my own site a makeover. Maybe this year… Clients come first.

So there you have it! It took a while but the cobbler’s children have shoes again. What a relief. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or a project to discuss. Thank you for stopping by.

Wishing you a very healthy and happy 2016!