If you are online in any capacity, chances are you’ve at least heard of WordPress. It’s a development language that is used to create websites and blogs. It’s open source, and it’s generally affordable. But just like everything, it has its pros and cons.

In general, a website is an investment. No matter what your budget is, you want to make sure you get as much from your website as possible.

If your website has been around for any length of time, you’ve probably gone through a redesign or at least a round of significant updates. Hopefully, each time has been a great success and you’ve never looked back. But for the rest of us there’s likely been at least one time when we thought...OMG, what have we done?

Today, creating a successful website is a skill in its own right. Not only do you need a great graphic design, you also have to consider usability, speed, mobile-friendliness, optimization, analytics, functionality...the list goes on and on. But at its core, a website serves a purpose for an audience. The purpose may vary, as will the audience, but the ultimate goal remains the same. Provide that audience with a successful online experience. And sometimes it’s easy to overlook some of the most basic requirements needed to do that.

2016 is almost over and let us just say...Wow. Wow for the good, wow for the bad, and wow for the ugly. And there was a lot of each everywhere you looked this year, that’s for sure.

Everyone has certain websites they frequent on a regular basis. Whether it’s used for banking, shopping, current events or something in between, we tend to have our favorites, and usually for a reason. Maybe it’s the website for your favorite brick-and-mortar store. Or maybe it’s the website for the news network you watch daily. Whatever it is, chances are you know there are other options out there, but you stick with your faves.