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Directive Blogs

Directive has been serving the Oneonta area since 1993, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Don’t Fall for These Image Copyright Infringement Scams

Of all the shady scams on the Internet, image copyright infringement scams are among the worst. Let’s talk about what they are, who they victimize, and how you can beat them.

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Web Design Trends that Oneonta Businesses Should Adopt ASAP

We’ve built thousands of websites over the last three decades, helping businesses throughout upstate New York and beyond improve their web presence and look like rockstars in front of their online audience. We’ve been seeing some trends that we think businesses around town would truly benefit from, and some minor grievances that occasionally crop up on local websites that we think should be addressed. 

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Website Editing Guide - Part 3 - URL Structure and Navigation

Website Editing Guide - Part 3 - URL Structure and Navigation

One of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen people make with their website is altering URLs.

This mistake has some serious repercussions, including; 

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Website Editing Guide - Part 2 - Content Formatting Best Practices

The Most Fundamental Website Best Practices Everyone Should Know Before Editing Their Website

Content Formatting Best Practices

Remember writing essays in school, and being taught how things should be formatted?

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Website Editing Guide - Part 1 - Glossary of Terms

The Most Fundamental Website Best Practices Everyone Should Know Before Editing Their Website

With modern website platforms like WordPress and Joomla, and page builders like SP Page Builder, Divi, and Elementor, managing your own website has become even easier and more accessible for the masses. Gone are the days of needing to learn a lot of HTML and CSS when it comes to just making simple edits to your website, but you still can’t go in without some rudimentary knowledge on how websites are supposed to be built.

This guide is intended for people who aren’t quite web designers, but are tasked with maintaining the website for the business they work for. Whether your position is marketing, sales, administration, or anything else, you might not be a web designer, but a little knowledge can make you a competent website manager!

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Is Your Website Outdated?

Ever notice how some websites don’t change much for years or even decades, while others age like milk? Of course, then there is your own website, which, depending on how you feel about it, will either feel outdated after a couple of years, or you’ll love the design so much that, to you, it’s timeless and never needs a change.

We’re going to look at how web design standards have changed, how to stay ahead of the curve to get the most time out of your website, and talk about some of the more frustrating things that you might need to prepare for with modern websites.

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Choosing the Right Website Platform

Virtually any type of business needs a website. Whether you are a local restaurant, a one-person CPA, or a busy manufacturer, your website is the proof that your business has a pulse. Like it or not, this will be one of the main conduits your prospective customers and clients will use to find you.

Even if your website is an afterthought, you should consider auditing it and refreshing it at least every couple years. That might not mean a full redesign from the ground up, but it definitely needs to reflect your business and provide your visitors with enough information to take the next steps.

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Don’t Let Your Organization Get Bullied by Copyright Lawyers

No business owner wants to deal with potential lawsuits, but over the last few years several companies have been constructed for the sole purpose of crawling the web and finding businesses to send copyright claims to. While copyright laws are important, these businesses aren’t looking to defend the sanctity of intellectual property, they are predators trying to squeeze a little money out of small businesses like yours.

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7 Things Upstate New York Businesses Get Wrong About Web Design

Having a good web presence is important for any organization, but what makes a good website has evolved over the last several years. Let’s discuss a handful of major mistakes we often see local businesses make when it comes to their online presence.

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The Ultimate Guide to Keep Your Website ADA Compliant

A few months ago, the Department of Justice (finally) updated their guidelines for web accessibility. In this blog, we’re going to walk through how to keep your website compliant as you make changes to it and add new content. This particular guide will cover WordPress and Joomla websites.

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Your Google My Business Profile is More Important Than Ever

If you're like most businesses who managed to remain open during these trying times, you have had to make a wide range of changes. The question is, are your customers aware of them? Do they know your new business hours or your COVID-19 precautions? Is your only communication tool a piece of paper taped to your door? Now is the time to take advantage of one of the most potent business communication tools available: Google My Business.

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New to Marketing?… Here’s Where to Start

Marketing your business may seem like a huge endeavor, or that you need to be a marketing mastermind to actually effectively market your business, but that is not true. If done right, marketing can be done without any stress or hassle. Where do you start? With a plan of course!

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6 Steps in Building a Solid Web Presence

So, you have a brand new website that offers some pretty outstanding products/services, and now you have the expectation that it is going to sell, sell, sell. Great products, after all, are the best marketing you can have. Let me tell you first so you don’t have to hear it from someone else…that is not enough.

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Creating Conversions With A Landing Page

Question: What is the purpose of a landing page? The answer: a landing page is designed to achieve a specific marketing goal--usually something along the lines of collecting contact information, driving traffic, or pushing for a purchase. However, before you just throw some text and a form on a page and call it a day, you should know that there is a process to creating an optimized, more effective landing page.

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Web Design Trends for 2017 and Beyond

It stands to reason that, in order for a user to visit, review, and retain information from your website, your site will have to look good. Of course, as with anything that has to do with what looks “good,” web design decisions should be dictated by what’s currently in fashion. In order to keep up with the trends of 2017, we’ve compiled a list of design elements that will be crucial for your website.

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Web Design Best Practices for Content Presentation

b2ap3_thumbnail_363986.jpgIn the past 10 years, the number of people who use the internet in their daily life has skyrocketed. As a result, many jobs now include adding or writing content that is ultimately posted online. Your business depends on your ability to create cohesive, complete information presented in an aesthetically pleasing, and memorable way.  How can we know if the content we are writing is presented in the appropriate fashion? There are a few best practices to keep in mind that will keep users coming back to your site, time after time.

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Joomla Tip: Load a Module in an Article

Joomla module screenshot

Here at Directive, we love Joomla, the open source content management system that makes it easy to edit your website. Here's an intermediate Joomla trick that will let you load a module inside an article (instead of in one of your template's pre-defined positions). There can be numerous occasions where you might want to drop a module inside one of your Joomla articles. Maybe you want some tabbed content inside your article or an image rotator that shows off your latest photos, or embed a JoomConnect form. This can all be done very easily with Joomla's loadposition tag. Hit the jump to find out how this is done.

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Size Matters: Optimizing Images for the Web

With all the fancy content management systems out there making it easy for users to manage and update their website, suddenly creating new content and pages on your site becomes a snap, and anyone can do it. While CMS's like Joomla empower those outside the professional web design field to completely turn their website into a living, breathing dynamic canvas, there are still a few simple best practices that one might not know without a little experience. One of the big ones that often get missed are images.  In this article, we'll show you how to work with images for the web so you get the best results possible when putting pictures on your website.  This will apply to blogs, social media, and just about any other method of publishing on the web.

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Bing Vs. Google

Everyone has heard of Google.  The word itself is synonymous with searching the web.  If you don’t know something, what do you do?  You Google it.  It’s become part of the internet vernacular.  You rarely hear folks say they are going to Yahoo that when they get home, or come across a solution by Binging it.

 

Like it or not, Google has become a part of our lives, but it certainly hasn’t done so without deserving it.  It is the leading search engine, and has earned it by being reliable.  When you search for something on Google, you find what you want.  It’s not easy to manipulate the system, and that’s why people trust Google so much.

 

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