News Archives - Page 3 of 6

The developer diary let's you in on the behind the scenes of the conference websites product. As a monthly section we'll aim to keep you up to date on the full list of amends that take place across the platform so you can keep up with what's fixed and what we've been working on.

July and August have merged into a long run of developments. With new secretive functionality just over the horizon (to be announced soon) we’ve been busy behind the scenes. Whilst we’ve been working on a lot of structural changes in the foundations of the code we’ve also been able to dish out a new round of functional and aesthetic features for this new version.

Conference Websites Major updates

Upgraded to WordPress 3.9
Better inline image editing, resizing images in the editor
Drag and Drop images in the editor
New ‘Call to Action’ button creation tool (Only available on the 2014 theme
New Image thumbnail editor, allows better refinement specifically for speaker images.

2014 Theme

NEW anchor shortcode added. Use [anchor id=”example”] to create an anchor point
NEW supporting CSS for the new CTA button tool
NEW new option to adjust text color of the footer disclaimer
NEW options set for the editable thumbnails. Hides all image sizes by default, then adds required ones.
NEW new search engine optimisation fields for pages, can now edit page description/title
NEW support css for gravity forms Poll’s extension plugin
NEW support for exhibitor single pages ( not relevent right now 😉 )
NEW Support for the Post Thumbnail Editor plugin including default option values
NEW noIndex setting to pages. This also hooks into the sitemap to remove the page from the sitemap
Fixed bug with the taxonomy templates not pulling in the correct data
Fixed shortcode edit links broken in wp 3.9
Tweaks to sidebar nav styling, allows the word conference to fit into a single half width button
Tweaks to mobile navigation to allow longer sublinks.
Tweaks made to the rounded corner settings on sidebar widgets (now keeps a square corner top left if there is a title)
Updated: mobile version spacing and padding
Updated: Re-Enabled the iframe shortcode admin as this had been blocked
Updated: Sponsor logo size increased in sidebar widget
Updated: reworking of the media upload script to allow gallery selection in preparation
Updated CSS for footer content to ensure disclaimer and nav can sit side by side.
Updated styling and layouts of taxonomy pages to allow more content to be added without breaking aesthetic
Updated seminar time picker to allow full 24 hours
Removed hardcoded meta data from <head>. It’s now added using wp_head hook from plugin
Removed code flipping the holding theme back on in odd circumstances
Removed redundent admin columns from media and pages view in preparation for the media library plugin

Seminars

Fixed issue with wp 3.9 with shortcode edit buttons breaking the text editor
Fixed issue with the speaker role reordering (this issue is a TB fix from several months ago – code has been tested and works fine but worth watching for any future issues incase this wasn’t finished code)
Tweaked the default speaker avatar on the seminar list
Removed seminar quick edit functionality as it no longer worked and looked awful anyway. No usability loss.

Speakers

New Editable speaker thumbnails for more precise control over the images
Updated added specific editable image size for featured speaker thumbnail to the featured speaker layout
Fixed issue with shortcode edit buttons on wp 3.9

Conference Websites 2012 Theme

This theme is currently on a ‘support only’ status, as you can tell we’re not giving it the full backing of the 2014 theme, the reason is that the frame of the system is too dated, so we built a new theme (2014) which users can upgrade to for free by contacting us.

Fixed issue with wp 3.9 with shortcode edit buttons breaking editor
Removed quick edit functionality as it no longer worked and looked awful anyway. No usability loss.
Fixed issue with the speaker role reordering
Tweaked the default speaker avatar on the seminar list

June Developer Diary

In our most recent Conference Website update we have upgraded to a higher version of Gravity Forms. This update allows you to be able to have the same customisation as the WordPress page editor.

This gives you the ability to add images bullet points etc instead of plain text. To access this feature go to Forms> [chosen form] settings> Notifications> And then either add user notification or edit your current one.

Polls are an important tool to get quick feedback from your users. We have launched an easy to use, feature rich Polls system.

And here’s how to do it:

Features:

Seamless Integration.
Public or Private Poll Results: Poll results are only displayed to the user when using the Poll Widget or Shortcodes. This makes it easy to poll users on any type of form, including order forms!
Gravity Forms Powered: Conditional logic, limiting after a certain date or number of votes… it’s no different than creating any form in Gravity Forms!

Creating a effective holding page is key to a successful conference website if you are keeping your website in development for a period of time.

To customise your holding page simply go to

Pages> Holding

You can either add text or images onto your holding page.

Here is an example of a holding page using a image.

In this blog post I will breakdown the widgets available for use on our 2014 Conference Website platform.

Add To Diary

The ‘Add To Diary’ widget allows a user to click the button to add the date of the event to there Google, Apple or Outlook calendars. When the button is clicked the user will download a .ics that will allows them to add it to there preferred calendar application.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

Custom Menu

The ‘Custom menu’ widget allows you to add a menu that is set up via the menu section of the back end and place it in the sidebar. This feature is great if you feel your navigation is full or want some important Call to Actions in your sidebar.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

Image Widget

The ‘Image Widget’ allows to add a image to your sidebar. You can also add links and titles to the image, this enables you to make custom sidebar buttons.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

RSS Feed Widget

The ‘RSS Widget’ allows you to add a RSS Feed to your sidebar.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

Social Media Links

The ‘Social Media Links’ creates buttons to your social networking websites.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

Speaker Profiles Widget

The ‘Speaker Profiles Widget’ will display any speakers you have set up in the back end and display them in your sidebar, you can adjust how many are shown along with the option to turn it into a slider.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

Sponsor Logos Widget

The ‘Sponsor Logos Widget’ will display any sponsors you have set up in the back end and display them in your sidebar, you can adjust how many are shown along with the option to turn it into a slider.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

Text Widget

The ‘Text Widget’ is self explanatory its simply a widget that allows you to display text or HTML in the sidebar.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

Twitter Feed Widget

The ‘Twitter Feed’ is self explanatory its simply a widget that allows you to display text or HTML in the sidebar.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

Go to https://twitter.com/settings/widgets/ And press Create New

Make sure the correct username has been placed into the Twitter username box. Once you are happy click ‘Create Widget’

Copy the code in the snippet box below your preview.

Paste the code into the widget and press ‘Save’

Countdown Widget

The ‘Countdown Widget’ is also self explanatory its a widget that can display a countdown timer to the event.

Front end result:

Back end setup:

We have partnered with Credit Card processing company Stripe.com and Gravity Forms – the leading WordPress Form builder (packaged with Conference-Websites).

The price for this is £350 setup with the following Stripe processing fees – 20p + 2.4%. For further information on pricing, please visit:

https://stripe.com/pricing

Please contact us for more information – conference-websites@miramedia.co.uk.

The Advert / Teaser pop-outs is now available to use on the Conference-Website.co.uk Platform.

Here is a demo on https://demo.conference-websites.co.uk/

Conference Websites pop up advert — Example: pop up advert

Features:

Displays / edits:
– Images – 100px x 100px
– Title
– Teaser text
– Link text & link
Only displays to new visitors not returning
Mobile optimised for phone or tablet

Administration / how to use it

Administration > Settings > Popout Settings

pop-out administration screens. — Pop-out administration screens.

Miramedia can now offer full design and branding services.

The package is £500 and includes everything you need in order to build a great looking professional website using the conference-websites.co.uk platform:

Deliverables include:

Logo design
Logo treatment – web and print versions
Web header
Web background design (might be blank)
Full page advert

TOTAL COST: £500.00

*Added revisions and requirements over and above approved design are costed at our standard rate.

Notes & Terms:

Based on my understanding of the brief and client requirements at initial phase, the pricing will include one design route submitted with a maximum of 2 sets of revisions* pre-implementation across variable deliverables as listed.

We would aim to develop listed deliverables inline with agreed final Logo treatment within a 2 – 3 day
time frame dependent on the speed at which we get feedback and the speed of which we get responses to all communications along the way.

Conditions

Pricing does not include use of purchased imagery/photography – the purchase of stock imagery will be priced and costed on final approved visuals prior to development / launch.

Additional services, eg. commissioned photoshoot, illustration, copywriting, strategic planning, are subject to additional pricing and will be priced and costed accordingly.

Updates

Future updates and additional deliverables will be charged at our standard rate. Longer projects can be undertaken on a negotiated fixed-fee basis.

Billing

50% of the total project cost will be invoiced on approved visuals. The remaining 50% will be invoiced on handover of the project and paid prior to release.

* Prices and details correct as at preparation date, errors and omissions excepted, subject to contract.

Please contact our print designer Tracy for more info: Tracy[at]miramedia.co.uk.

5 Things to do today to improve the SEO on your conference-website.co.uk

1. Add your site to Freebase

Freebase is a “A community-curated database of well-known people, places, and things”. We advise that you submit your event. If possible, add your event to the topic and not as an event.

WHY: well why not? It’s another link and it ads credibility.

HOW: visit https://www.freebase.com/ and follow your nose. It’s quite tricky and can be very involved. But it’s quite easy to add your domains only.

2. Add your site to Bing and Google Webmaster tools.

Of course, this assumes that you have setup on webmaster tools already. if not, why not, please do this now – instructions to add your event website to google webmaster tools?

WHY: well why not? It’s another link and it ads credibility.

HOW: http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

Add your event to klout –

“Klout helps people be discovered for their unique passions.”

WHY: You’ve guessed it – why not? It’s another link and it ads credibility. It will also help you manage your Social Media Campaigns.

HOW: http://klout.com/home

Add to Wikipedia – careful – there is a guide on CIPR.co.uk (Paper on personalization of results – http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/policy-resources/best-practice-guides-toolkits/wikipedia-and-public-relations)

Use Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/) to promote your photos. Make the photos Global rights and include keyword rich keywords in the description. With luck another website will pick them up and reuse them. They will need to credit the rights to the photos to you.

SEO is crucial in the success of a website. Without a strong SEO presence your website can really struggle to get regular visitors. In this blog post I will discuss how one page websites are not SEO friendly and why multipage websites should always be used.

One page websites are funnily enough a website with only one page to display there whole website. Some of these websites may be beautiful but they have a significant effect on your SEO ranking. Here are 3 reasons why you should always use multi page websites.

1) A one page website means you only have one page on search engines

With a one page website you will only be appearing on a search engine once. This gives other websites a better chance of ranking higher as they are able to create multiple pages with the same keyword. Here is an example of a one page website vs a multipage website on google results.

2) One page websites only have one title tag and meta description tag

One page websites have one title tag and one meta description this will limit what is displayed on google. This also gives the site only one opportunity to hook clients in via search engines. Multipage websites give you the option to have multiple page titles and descriptions to help strengthen your SEO ranking.

3) Tracking your visitors with Google analytics is useless

Google analytics is a extremely valuable tool for monitoring what clients are doing on your website. With a single page website you can only monitor there time and how many hits you have on your website. This restricts you from having access to tools that allow you to know what your clients are spending most there time viewing on the website, this valuable information can only be displayed on multi page websites.

Category: News

Conference Websites Major updates

2014 Theme

Seminars

Speakers

Sponsors

Conference Websites 2012 Theme

And here’s how to do it:

Features:

Add To Diary

Custom Menu

Image Widget

RSS Feed Widget

Social Media Links

Speaker Profiles Widget

Sponsor Logos Widget

Text Widget

Twitter Feed Widget

Countdown Widget

Features:

Administration / how to use it

Notes & Terms:

Conditions

Updates

Billing

5 Things to do today to improve the SEO on your conference-website.co.uk

1. Add your site to Freebase

2. Add your site to Bing and Google Webmaster tools.

1) A one page website means you only have one page on search engines

2) One page websites only have one title tag and meta description tag

3) Tracking your visitors with Google analytics is useless