Simon Lee

What’s the biggest blocker to running an efficient website project? Well for me, it’s splitting design and dev over different agencies. This approach is fraught with danger! - Overcomplicated communication - Trying to mash two different agency processes together - Unanswered questions left over from incomplete user journeys - Complex designs that aren’t technically possible  - Inflated budgets due to working with more than a single agency - Inflated time due to increased complexity There is a much better way! Just use one agency - simples!!! A single agency can: - Control the whole process so reducing challenging comms - Work with you to make sure the end goal is not technically impossible and doesn’t blow the budget - Manage budgets better and more transparently - Be more economical with the team resources, reducing project overhead - Deliver quicker, getting your ROI back much faster I’m all for community, collaboration and working together, but sometimes it just doesn’t make sense! And this is one of those times! For more website project hints and tips, follow me, you won't regret it, sometimes I'm funny too 🙂

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Its a bit controversial but.... its a bit silly having a website if its not bringing you anything Websites are the best lead generators you can have And I have heard too many companies tell me that they don't 'use' their website There's a difference between not 'using' your website and not 'knowing' how to use your website Convinced? Heres a free PDF guide to make it make sense: https://lnkd.in/gH8u8VnN

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Elementor, Gutenberg and other block builders have turned WordPress into the MS Frontpage of the 2020s, letting barely competent people who are a "bit good with software" create websites full of bugs and problems - all the time they call themselves "Web Developers" yet haven't a clue how to code a solution to a tricksy rendering problem. They create fragile websites rammed with plugins and libraries and zero supply chain scrutiny. Naive buyers have no idea, often leading to immense damage to their brands. Discuss!

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Not many website designers will tell you this, but where you buy your domain name from can have a significant impact on your website costs and performance.   It’s easy to be tempted by offers of free or very cheap first-year domain prices, but some deals can turn out to be more expensive over the longer term.   As a guide, there’s a table comparing domain name registration costs from 10 popular registrars for the first year and after three years on my website at: https://lnkd.in/eYbXM8Ge   But it’s not only a question of where you buy your domain name. Most people host their website with the company they’ve registered the name with, but it’s not always the best option, in either financial or performance terms.   Cheap hosting is usually shared between hundreds of websites on a single server, all competing for limited resources. High traffic on other websites on the same shared server can slow down your site’s loading speed.   Speed is important: not only do longer load times put visitors off, they also impact how sites are treated by search engines like Google, which prefer fast-loading sites and effectively penalise slow ones.   A better option is cloud-based hosting, where your site will be hosted on a network of web servers rather than just one.   Some web designers ‘white label’ their hosting packages, so it looks like they’re hosting sites themselves. They’re not; hosting is an expensive business, requiring dedicated resources and serious expertise. Before signing up to a hosting package, it’s worth asking who’s actually providing it and how good it is.   And there’s more …   Some hosting companies offer free lifetime SSL certificates and free email addresses, while others charge for them. You might not think it matters, but if you’re trying to save money on your website, then paying £60 to £80 every year for an SSL certificate and a few pounds a month for an email address are unnecessary expenses when free options are available.   I offer fast, cloud-based hosting, powered by renewable energy, from £100 for one year, £180 for two years, or £240 for three. All packages come with free SSL and free email.   Sounds good? Then let’s chat. Mail [email protected] or call 07759 162678.

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Random thought: PDP in a can. Imagine having the ability to pull PDP templates out of a massive library, and in a few clicks have things up and running. Crazy? I don't actually think so. If websites were more conformed on how bits of functionality works, like ATB behaviours, where details like name, price, image etc are kept (headless helps with this), we could then have tons of PDP layouts "in a can". PDP layout tests are painful. Painful to build, painful to test, and the second person that wants it - you're doing it from scratch again. Imagine instead making the website's mechanisms and data standardised, and then just being able to import a PDP Template component. It could have levers, like the type of image gallery you want, the overall design, the structure of things - and because they'd just be variables like "template = 3", "sticky ATB design = 12", you'd be able to run a big MVT and just test all the combinations with almost no thinking involved. You then have the personalisation/relevancy opportunities like "this page needs a more illustrative PDP - ok, we'll turn on template 52", and because it'd be a component with the surrounding data, everything you need as a website owner is there to make it happen. "It's too difficult" almost goes away. If it's broken for you and the standardisation bit has been done, it's broken for everyone, which means it's community pressure to fix it. If you're on a major platform, like Shopify, Bigcommerce, etc., gaps could get plugged at a platform level and suddenly an extra 100000 customers can use your work. The license could be a Copyleft one, where derivative works need to be made public, or just all things open-sourced and encourage users to feed back new ideas if they take from the repo. Would be really cool for someone to do this. If not, I might need to kick the project off myself :)

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It took us 4 years to bootstrap Session Media to over £1 Million ARR. Here's how I would do it in HALF the time if I could start over: I wouldn't. While I love the idea of rapid growth, I don't think it's the right decision for all people (especially in the service industry). It takes time to: - build a great team - build repeatable processes - work out that team structure changes every 2-3 new hires (initially) - realise micro & macro factors force positioning to evolve - understand that having clients who are 15-20% of your revenue are a bad idea (although enticing) - try different approaches - learn it's okay to enjoy the ride Oh yeah, and most importantly, learn everyone isn't as successful as their LinkedIn bio. At 26 when I started Session, I was convinced that the best businesses were overnight successes. Turns out those overnight successes I admired were years and years in the making.

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Empty the Cart Snippet. To be honest, the last thing you want is for the Customer to empty the cart, but if you've ever wanted it, then add it. https://lnkd.in/g6CgMH3S #CodeSnippets

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Top tip: When choosing what stack to build your website on (or anything for that matter!) don’t pick something weird. When we rebuilt our site a few years ago we stuck with a fairly geeky static site generator (Jekyll) because I knew it fairly well. It’s been a complete headache. - Hard to find freelancers developers / designers familiar with it - Major barriers to non technical folks editing  - Only rudimentary Content Management Systems available What’s your org using now? What would you choose if you were going back to market?

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For this month only, I'm going to be doing free audits for Websites If you have booked no/low calls and your website has done nothing for you this month, this is for you I'm doing this so you can: - Have a professional website and look like a real business - Tailor the way your website works for YOUR business, and improve the return you get from it (the conversion rate) - Have a perfect CTA which actually pulls in leads and emails BONUS - Will guide you on how to implement these too, according to your website builder and situation All you need to do to claim on is: 1. Like this post 2. Connect with Eshan Hanif if you haven't 3. Fill in this 1 minute form below 4. Wait 1-3 days and I'll send you a thorough video analysis + how to implement these changes

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Why Your Website's INP Might Get Worse After Fixing LCP 🤯 This is what usually happens when you fix a website's LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)🚀: A few days later, the INP (Interaction to Next Paint) starts to creep up. 🤔 Weird, right? Actually, it’s a sign you’re on the right track! ✅ Visitors are now experiencing a site that loads almost instantly, and they’re diving in, clicking, scrolling, and interacting like crazy! 🎉 Where they used to zone out during long page loads, now they’re engaging sooner and more frequently, which will affect up your INP numbers. So, after you’ve tackled the initial speed issues, give it a few days. ⏱️ Then check your RUM data (Pro tip: try Core/Dash) to see if there are any new INP optimizations to take on. 🔍 #webperformance #webdevelopment #ux #corewebvitals

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When thinking about buying a new website... Take time to account for complexity vs simplicity - initial guidance and real discussions matter. My method is more detailed - so less needed further down the line. ✨ Grabbing an initial free meeting allows us to talk openly and whittles down basic needs - it allows a mutually agreeable timeline or solution to be placed. My advice is to ensure it’s right for you. 👊 Moving around the granular detail and differential matters - forms, buttons, icons and graphics - a bespoke process helps your goal stand out with more than just the site. 🤝 let’s optimise with SEO in every build! #branding #website it’s nearly #november 🫢☝️. The 1% Resilience Club

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WordPress 6.7 dropped earlier this week 👀 It's packed full of updates, so I thought I'd share some of them here (in case you're interested). 👉 Template Syncing – it's here! Syncing templates across pages and posts has just become a lot easier. We can wave goodbye to layout inconsistencies with one-click template sync. 👉 Enhanced Media Library! Now with better filtering, searching, and a more intuitive layout, especially useful for media-heavy sites. If you’ve ever spent 10 minutes searching for a single image, you’ll feel the difference in this update. 👉 AI Assistance in the Editor... Obviously, right? But hey, built-in AI tools in the editor make creating content and suggestions faster and more seamless. It won’t replace your talented copywriters, but it might save your internal teams a few headaches. 👉 A Cheeky Performance Boost. Page speed improvements come baked into 6.7. WordPress have optimised some core components, giving your site that extra boost it may need. 👉 Better Plugin Management. New updates mean more control over plugin activation, deactivation, and updates. Perfect for those who want tighter control over their site’s functionality without backend chaos. Is it worth updating? My view is that it's mostly a bunch of improvements, with lower risk when updating. However, speak to your web team to ensure there are backups and precautions in place and maybe hold off until you're more confident every plugin is compatible. --------------- Yes, went super lazy with the graphic. I asked AI to generate an image of WordPress if it was a dog because dogs get engagement, right?

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Is #WordPress falling behind? I think we've got a 'rookie problem'. Young people are being told it's better to rent their digital spaces than to own and are giving up more than they bargained for. https://lnkd.in/gMz9DnRq #DigitalStrategy #ContentOwnership

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Interesting new Google test running. The buttons that are appear under some search results are html bookmarks on the page that have been linked to via a table of content This make it easier for Google to identify them and then deliver people to the most relevant part of the page

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Get your systems talking to each other with an API connection... Here is a recent example of a customised API connection for our client and a third-party company. Not only has this saved our client time but has also increased productivity Client had a manual task of uploading documents to a third-party service to wait for information to be created (several days). Then they manually downloaded all of the documents and re-uploaded them to their CRM. We created a system flow that tapped into the API of the third-party system to send the information via API, and created a polling job to periodically check for updates. When the documents were ready, it automatically uploaded them to their CRM, removing the human process from that flow and dramatically speeding up the delivery process. #e2estudios #Automation #APIntegration #Efficiency #TechSolutions #CRM #BusinessProcessOptimisation

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If anyone knows any devs - tag away please For a few years now we’ve been building out and using an amazing server provisioning and code deployment tool https://deploy.dev After an extensive 6 month program of rolling it out to Aero Commerce agencies, who all love it, we’re now making it public for the first time - whilst it’s been working in a commercial environment for years now we’re launching it in Beta for a lucky few devs / agencies we know and trust The story : After using combinations of forge and envoyer that didn’t do fully what we wanted, we built our own to provide the missing links. It’s been a real game changer for us in terms of productivity, simplicity and efficiency. You can provison, boot up and manage servers in numerous industry leading hosting providers at the touch of a button. Code can be centrally managed through the major repositories and deployed automatically or manually through our seemelss integrations. There is no charge for this to our friends or friends of friends whilst in beta and we’d love your feedback Just register at https://deploy.dev and have a play

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