Updating Wexford Chiropractic Centre’s Website
The first website I ever made.
The Wexford Chiropractic Centre website is the first website I ever made, all the way back in 2006-2007. It’s been “maintained” and “updated” by various people over the years, but for the most part the original design is intact.
My aunt and uncle who run the chiropractic business got in touch with me last year because they’ve been getting approached by a ton of vendors hawking their “mobile web solutions”. They are rightfully overwhelmed by a lot of the information they’ve been receiving, and I can’t help but feel angry at the predatory way these vendors are approaching small businesses.
But my family is worried about Google’s mobile-friendly update (aka hashtag Mobilegeddon *everybody freakout*) since a lot of their visitors (usually folks looking for a chiropractor in the area) are entering the site through search engine results pages. And their website doesn’t pass Google’s mobile friendly test, which has them understandably concerned, considering 21% of their current visitors are arriving from mobile devices.
Naturally I want to help my family, but I also realize I don’t have a whole lot of time to dedicate to the update. So I was thinking of doing a limited redesign to clean things up and get them going in the right direction then pass it off to someone who would be able to help them out longterm. To make things fun, I was thinking of adding some intentional restrictions to the process. I was thinking of two things:
- Only touch CSS, no HTML.
- Only subtract.
But after thinking about it and looking at the current code, I realize I really should clean up the HTML in addition to the CSS (that being said, with the exception of a lack of viewport meta tag and using IDs instead of classes, the markup is pretty clean!). Someone ended up adding a bunch of unnecessary JS to the site, so I have a feeling there’ll be a lot of stuff to subtract.
So that’s what I’m going to do. I set up a repository and have been combing through the site to trim things down. It’s pretty damn fun to hack through this with a machete!
Like I mentioned, I don’t have the capacity to maintain their site longterm, so they’re looking for someone who can help them. Here’s what they’re looking for:
The Wexford Chiropractic Centre is looking for a web designer to help maintain their website, provide site enhancements, and better optimize the site for users and search engines alike.
They are also looking for someone who can help the office manage their Facebook, Twitter, and social media presence on a regular basis. Pay would be based on experience and the scope of work.
If you’re interested in doing a little site maintenance/social media work, contact me and I can put you in touch. It’d be preferable if the designer was from the Pittsburgh area, but at the end of the day they just want an honest, competent, non-predatory person to help them out a bit. Thanks!