My new website is up and running at last

[janwilky]

www.wilkinsonassociates.co.uk

I've managed without one for the last 13 years but the consultancy market is changing and I need some new clients so I've been doing a lot of marketing this summer.  I've been working on my new website for about 2 months, with a huge amount of help from my computer savvy sister, and I can hardly believe we've nearly got there at last! There are a few things we still need to work on, the major one being that it doesn't work very well on ipads and other mobile devices yet. My sister is working on that, but she needs to create 'parent and child' pages before she does it in case it all goes pear-shaped when she makes the global changes necessary. So for the moment it's best viewed on a non-mobile device (laptop or desktop). I have some more client testimonials to be added too, but everyone seems to be on holiday at the moment.

I would love it if anyone has time to have a look and let me know what you think - all comments gratefully received, also let me know if any links etc. don't work or if you spot any typos/glaring errors. We've reached the stage of not being able to see the wood for the trees!

I'd also be very grateful for as many views as possible, as it all helps to boost the site's ratings and make it more likely to come up on search engines.

All I need now is for the work to come pouring in......... 

[happysnail]

Cool. Can only read the bits on the left (I'm just on my phone) but sounds really exciting. Good luck!

[janwilky]

Ah yes, sorry it doesn't work very well on phones yet. It should do soon though....

[lizpurlo]

It looks lovely, Jan, very crisp and clear, and easily navigated. Some gorgeous views too!

[mollichop]

Have had a quick view on my iPad Jan, it looks great and seemed to navigate ok for me

[janwilky]

Thanks  . Liz you might recognise one or two of the views!

[portiabuzz]

On my galaxy s5 phone it works well until you scroll halfway down then no pics just words down one side only

Sent from my SM-G800F using proboards

[janwilky]

Thanks PB

The mobile device issues are because we chose what's called a 'dynamic' theme, which is supposed to make it work better on portable devices, but what it does is mess around with the page layout in ways we can't control. The answer is to tweak the settings to make our dynamic theme non-dynamic, and if that's as much double-dutch to you as it is to me you'll know why I've left my sister to figure it out

She's working on it, but first she has to create what's called a parent and child theme for each page so that if it all goes pear-shaped when we make the global changes we can revert to the previous version without too much swearing or throwing of muddy boots at computer screens

I had no idea there was so much involved, I thought it wasn't much more complicated than using Word or Publisher. I'm pretty savvy with MS Office, spreadsheets don't daunt me and I can even draw complicated electronic maps and plans but THIS has been an eye-opener 

[KimT]

All looks fab Jan. Well done and I hope the parent/child work goes well. I understand what you mean and it does make sense for her to do it that way. The child should inherit the parent themes but you can tweak it as much as you want to make sure it works before applying the changes to the parent site. That way you dont lose all of your work. The child doesnt even need to be publicly facing to start with.

Ok, I will take off my work hat now :-)

[janwilky]

Thanks KimT, and you sound like my sister! I take it you do this sort of thing for a living? 

I'm hoping my sis is going to sign up for a web design course, I'm very impressed with how she's worked out what she needs to know to get the website looking how I wanted it. It's only the second one she's ever done and the first one was much simpler. She doesn't have very good health, but this is something she could do as and when she's able and it would be lovely if doing my website for me leads onto a bit of a career for her. 

I had my first bit of work through the website last night: and it was local - I almost never get local work!  It was only helping out with a bat survey of some farm buildings, a couple of hours' worth of evening work but there were five of us standing around with bat detectors - so that's four new ecologists in my network, which can only be a good thing.

[jen1]

Very nice, I think though on your opening page , it needs bullet pointing a little to make you read on further , I cant be the only one who just looks quickly , looking for the facts , I love the pics jan ,

[janwilky]

Thanks Jen

[kafee]

Very interesting reading Jan. I was able to access the whole website from this PC. I'm now rather jealous as I would love to do something along those lines.

[janwilky]

Thanks Kafee

It's not a glamorous job: I spend most of my time getting either muddy or freezing cold, and when I'm not doing that I'm writing rather dull reports on the computer. Work seems to be picking up at last though, and it's nothing to do with the new web site as it's all coming from two existing clients.... ah well, I'm just glad I'm going to be occupied over winter and not twiddling my thumbs and worrying about paying the bills!