Tom Rankin is a musician, vegan, and Staff Writer at WordCandy. When he’s not writing about WordPress, he’s on the look out for the ideal beard comb.
The ‘White Screen of Death’ (WSoD) is a horrible error for a website owner to encounter – one of the worst, in fact – especially if you don’t have the knowledge to fix it. With only a blank screen staring back at you, there’s absolutely no indication of what’s happened, and no way of knowing what to do next.
There are a number of solutions available for creating websites, each with their own advantages, disadvantages and fanatical user bases championing each of them. This means finding the solution to publish your content could be tough. Make the wrong choice and you’re potentially stuck with a platform that causes you headaches and grief further down the line.
Web browsing on mobile devices has steadily increased from the early ’00s, to the point where we’re now consuming more content from mobile devices than any other platform. While ‘mobile-first’ and responsive design initiatives have been popular in recent years, less attention has been paid to how quickly web pages load on mobile devices.
It’s been no secret to anyone using a mobile device over the past few years – webpages have become more feature-rich, while delivery speed has been sometimes lacking. While ‘mobile-first’ initiatives have been helpful in bridging this gap, more effort is necessary to bring browsing speeds into the 21st Century.
Smartphone and tablet usage in the US has reached tipping point, with reports suggesting that over 60% of digital media time in the US is spent on our devices. Unfortunately, developer’s attitudes have taken a long time to catch up when it comes to our mobile experience. Concepts such as ‘responsive design’ and ‘mobile-first’ have been steps in the right direction, but work on improving our mobile browsing speed has been lacking.
Your website is much like an old-fashioned paper newsletter. It provides instant information on your church and its activities, all from the comfort of the reader’s home. And just like a paper newsletter, your website has to appeal to those viewing it. Your church may provide a great deal of value to your community, with activities and opinions of real interest to your congregation, but if your website can’t convince members to get involved, all that good work may go unnoticed.
