The Applied Interactive website was constructed using industry-standard best practices, with expert insight into how each element is executed and which tools are best applied to the job at hand.
A significant portion of the value proposition made when engaging Applied Interactive is the knowledge and insight we’ve gained because we live and breathe this stuff every day. Our team has been working in this industry for decades and we’ve had the opportunity to see countless trends rise and fall, fads come and go, and quite a few promising platforms being prematurely abandoned by their developers, leaving an entire user base – many of whom had invested quite a lot of time and money into setting up their projects – with no source of product support.
When choosing which gadgets to put in our toolkit, we have the discipline to look past the shiny new object and focus on stability, scalability, functionality, reliability, and ease of use. We are constantly conducting research into which tools are the most useful, intuitive, and reliable, and which are simply not worth the time and effort required to implement. The results of this research allow you – our client – to feel comfortable knowing that you are being provided with the exact package of services most appropriate for your unique needs.
With all this in mind, which products and services rose above the rest to win our endorsement? Without further ado:
Content Management: WordPress
If you can think of it, chances are someone built it. Beware though, not all plugins are created equally.
Why do we recommend WordPress? In short, it makes running a website very easy.
Accounting for over 20% of all websites on the Internet, WordPress has become an industry standard. The developer community is both large and active, and the platform is capable of being customized to your heart’s content with professional plug-ins being developed daily. The documentation is thorough and everything is open source, meaning you own the code and your content, allowing complete portability should the need ever arise.
Bottom Line: It’s probably the last CMS you will ever need.
Check out WordPress.
Hosting: WPEngine
Our new site was built with WordPress and launched on WPEngine. It loads wicked fast.
WPEngine specializes in WordPress hosting. They assume full responsibility for ensuring your WordPress installation is working and your website is visible online. They perform automatic daily backups and provide a staging area for testing updates and changes.
Compare this level of service to self-managed command line hosting (like Amazon AWS) or “everything for everybody” hosting (like GoDaddy and 1+1) where you are responsible for the setup, installation, and maintenance of WordPress and any underlying services. With a hosting plan like that, you’ll almost certainly need a developer if things go wrong or if your site ever goes down.
Just like Applied Interactive, WPEngine is the perfect combination of best-in-class, proven expertise and affordability. If WordPress is the platform of choice, WPEngine is the clear winner in the hosting game.
Bottom line: It’s probably the last hosting company you will ever need.
Check out WPEngine.
WordPress Themes: Elegant Themes
Edit your content with customizable drag and drop modules.
Elegant Themes is a global team of thirty designers that have been making WordPress themes for years. Hundreds of thousands of customers have purchased one or more of their 85+ themes, which are well-built and adhere to best practices. To make their offering even more compelling, their built-in ET Page Builder is a powerful graphic user interface (GUI) that makes managing your content extremely easy, virtually eliminating the need to write any code. Elegant Themes has a large community of designers, programmers, and users contributing to their success. Like us, all are passionate about their work – and it shows.
Bottom line: It’s probably the last source for WordPress themes you will ever need.
Check out Elegant Themes.
The Critical Differentiator: The Content
Caution: Hot Content
Why on Earth would we post a list of “secret” ingredients that makes our recipe work so well? Frankly, we don’t mind sharing because we know that you will probably still want our help to get it all done.
Let’s face it, building a modern website that generates quality traffic and actionable leads is not a task for the faint of heart – or for rookies. There’s simply too much at stake. The DIY-er in you might be tempted to try, but the results are likely to be mixed.
Nearly all of what makes a website unique is its content (text, photography, video, etc…) and this material needs to be produced and presented correctly or you risk doing more harm than good to your public persona and revenue prospecting efforts. Your content has to be optimized for search engines, be intuitive to navigate, and be tailored to the needs and expectations of your target audience or the whole exercise will be wasted effort.
Your website might look gorgeous, but never generate a single lead for your business. Looking good is one thing, but ROI is another – much more important – thing entirely.
Applied Interactive ensures you end up with both.
Contact us today and let us show you how we will do it all for you.