Service Desk Lead

Tony Diaz

# What Does The Fruition Service Desk Team Do?
At Fruition, we are here to help our clients succeed, not only through the services we provide, but also through education and customized help on a whole range of issues. We know that no matter how good your marketing strategy is, how compelling your content, and how engaging your social media presence is, if your business’s website isn’t working the way it is supposed to or isn’t driving conversions, your business is in trouble. Our in-house team of developers is here to help build out your website, but odds are good that the Fruition team helping keep your website running day-to-day is our amazing Service Desk team. If you’ve never worked with our Service Desk team, or if you need a refresher, here’s what our fantastic website pit crew can do for you and your business. Read more: How Fruition Stays on the Cutting Edge of Web Development

## Comprehensive Support for Your Website
Our Full-service Marketing Service Desk team is dedicated first and foremost to helping solve your site problems, big and small.

### Troubleshooting Plug-ins and Broken Forms
Core and plugin updates are common tasks performed by the Service Desk team because the tools for websites are always evolving, so site maintenance is a constant need. It's important, though, for updates to be completed under the watchful eye of someone who understands the code and can remediate if there are code conflicts. Forms break for similar reasons, or for reasons which are completely singular. Having our Service Desk team on your side means that we can take these headaches off of your plate, figure them out for you, then talk it through with you after we’ve fixed it. 

### Training Your Team on WordPress and Drupal Site Processes
In the same way, the Full-service Marketing Service Desk team at Fruition will work with your team to train them on-site processes for WordPress or Drupal, whichever system your site runs on. We want to gain a greater understanding of how our clients are going to use their site on a daily basis—whether that means they are posting blogs, creating pages, or otherwise. Once our Service Desk team has an understanding there, we work to tailor a WordPress or Drupal training course for you. These training services can range from helping your internal team develop a basic understanding of your website’s platform, or focus on building a decent proficiency in navigating that program. It all is up to you, and depending on your company’s specific digital marketing needs, our Service Desk will make a recommendation on training.  These training sessions can be a great way to supplement other service desk services your company takes advantage of on a daily basis. We build a website because it’s a tool for our clients to use as a business. Having your team build a pretty good understanding of this tool is helpful to your business.

### Riding Out Update Snags
Whenever new core or plugin updates are identified, it is never clear how things on the site will interact with each other. For instance, depending on the platform’s update, something that worked just fine on WordPress two years ago might not work in this version. As any developer will tell you, remediating conflicting code can be a tricky business, but it’s something that our Service Desk team at Fruition excels at. The Service Desk also works to identify which updates help resolve security issues on the platform, and which updates are less crucial, so that your site is less likely to be affected by nonessential updates. When the operating system (OS) makes a larger jump in updates, not all plugins are going to have been tested on the new OS for the platform, which sometimes causes internal breakdown of how the two systems understand each other. In these situations, our Service Desk team helps these two programs understand each other. This reduces downtime on your site and ensures all systems are working, so you can continue building your business.
**Related:** The Importance of Website Updates and Why You Should Keep Up With Them
### Building Out “Mini-Projects”
In some cases, your website might need a tune-up that involves more than just a little work. That’s wonderful! For times when you want a more robust update (like adding a page for hosting video content, for example) the Service Desk team has the capability to work on what we call a “mini-project.” In these cases, the team will build out custom content for you per your specifications and needs. These mini-projects tend to be tasks that might take over eight hours to complete and tasks that require a much more dedicated focus. Of course, if the mini-project evolves into a larger project over the course of discovery, the Service Desk will pass the project along to a dedicated project manager with a more defined scope of work and budget. If it does stay a mini-project, though, you can rest assured that the Service Desk team knows the ins and outs of your site, will address any conflicting codes with recent updates, and can work with you to anticipate future modifications. As you look into the new year, consider whether you need to add any functionality to your website, and don’t be afraid to ask us for help! These mini-projects are some of our Service Desk team’s most rewarding marketing services.  To learn what our Fruition Service Desk can do for you and your business, drop us a line today. We take immense pride in our digital marketing work, and we know that our website support team is ready to help your business succeed in 2022 and for years to come. 





The Fruition Service Desk helps our clients by building out WordPress pages, navigating updates, and more. Here's how Fruition's Service Desk can help you.

What Does The Fruition Service Desk Team Do?

Get some more information on page speed and SEO with these related articles. 

More SEO & Page Speed Information

# 4 Ways To Improve Your Page Speed

## Why Is Page Speed Important? 
People want answers faster than ever and many aren’t willing to wait. In fact, a Google report discovered that for every one-second delay in mobile page speed, conversions can fall by 20%. In addition to affecting consumer behavior, your page speed can also impact your website’s rankings in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Google now uses mobile page speed in its ranking algorithm, making it even more important that your mobile site loads as quickly as possible. 

## How Do I Check My Site Speed? 
You need to know how fast Google thinks your site is by using their Page Speed Insights or Test My Site tools, or using a third-party test like PingDom or GT Metrix. If these tools report that you have below-average site speed, be realistic about what will improve your site speed. It’s easy to get caught up in improving your grade a certain amount, which can quickly consume your time and budget. Be practical in your approach and don’t pay an arm and a leg to fix something that will only bring your score up a few points. Instead, use the score to point developers in the right direction and give them a good starting point on what changes would have the greatest impact. 

## How To Improve Your Site Speed
### 1. Optimize Your Images 
Optimizing your images is one of the easiest ways to improve your site speed. Your team should always resize and compress images before uploading them to ensure pages stay below 1 megabyte. Don’t rely on your site’s CMS to resize or compress your images. Some systems only change the image size instead of compressing the photo, while other sites use a preset compression size that may still weigh down your page. 
### 2. Leverage Browser Caching
Browser caching allows static content to be served to a returning visitor faster since the browser doesn’t need to re-download every static asset on subsequent page load (instead they’re stored on your computer and reused). You can customize how long this information is cached depending on how frequently your site is updated or changed, but Google recommends selecting a year-long time frame for static assets. 
### 3. Minify CSS, HTML, & JavaScript
Minification of CSS, HTML & Javascript reduces the markup and code on your web pages to remove unnecessary information without affecting functionality or other visual elements. When developers create code, they may include spaces, line breaks, or comments to make the code more readable to themselves or other back-end team members. Minification removes this extra data from the files that are served to the end users, making for smaller files that they have to download when rendering your website. Minification is a complex process and should be handled by a developer. 
### 4. Use Lazy Loader Functionality 
Lazy loading loads only the required content first, and the remaining content is loaded as the user needs it. This allows the page to load faster since it doesn’t have to wait for the entire page’s content to load. This method is popular with image-heavy sites, and even Google uses it to decrease page speed. For example, when you type a search query into an image search, google loads images for the first few lines, and then uses placeholders for the rest. When you scroll down, the placeholders are replaced with real images.  Improving page speed is an essential part of creating a successful website. Not only will fast page speed help you rank higher, but you’ll also create a better user experience. Not sure where to start when it comes to improving site speed? Contact Fruition today! 

Contact the experts today!

Unlock higher rankings and better conversions with proven speed enhancement tactics. Discover how to optimize images, utilize caching, minimize code, and leverage lazy loading to better your user experience.

Speed Up Your Site: Techniques for Image Optimization, Caching, Code Minification, and Lazy Loading

# Does Your Site’s Imagery Reflect Your Brand Identity?

As the old adage goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Considering the average site visitor bounces from your website in less than 15 seconds, the imagery you use must demand attention, tell your brand story, and encourage engagement. By exploring different types of imagery and understanding the visual impact your choices have on users, you can create a more interesting, inviting experience for site users – which can result in increased trust, loyalty, and conversions. Read More: How To Choose A Color Palette For Your Brand’s Website

## Types Of Website Imagery
Your site can visually tell your business’ story in many different ways. The most common types of site imagery include:
- **Photography: The go-to for most sites, photography is always a good option, especially for sites that want to show a human connection. Try to avoid overly “stocky” images – original photography always conveys more authenticity and trustworthiness.** 
- **Illustrations:** If you want to visualize how humans interact with and use digital products, illustrations are a good solution. Many SaaS companies, like Hootsuite or Mailchimp, use illustrations in addition to screenshots to add visual interest to their site.
- **3D Renders:** 3D renders are great for visualizing physical products. Flat artwork can also be mapped to 3D renderings to create 3D product images, eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming product photoshoots. You can create photo-realistic designs and interesting 3D “backdrops” for product imagery using tools like Adobe Dimension.
- **Icons:** Icons are simple representations of concepts and can be used in a variety of applications. Icons are available in a large number of styles, including solid, lined, color, and 3D.

## How do you Determine Your Site’s Imagery?
Your site’s imagery should be closely related to your color palette and logo design, especially if you’re a newer brand. Typically, larger, more established brands can take bigger risks when it comes to imagery and color. For example, Dropbox and MailChimp have recently rolled out some daring color palettes and visual imagery. As established brands, these companies can afford to take bigger risks when it comes to visual identity.  If you’re still developing your brand’s visual aesthetic, create a mood board with your brand’s logo, color scheme, and several examples of imagery. By examining each visual aspect side-by-side, you can begin to create a cohesive visual story.

## Why Is Site Imagery Important?
Effective use of imagery has many benefits:
- Conveys a sense of trustworthiness
- Creates a strong connection to the brand
- Adds visual interest to the design
- Creates a memorable experience

Conversely, ineffective imagery can create a lack of trust, creates a weak connection to the brand, and makes your site boring and forgettable to users.

## Examples Of Great Brand Imagery
To inspire your project, we’ve compiled a few sites that use imagery exceptionally well:
- Fisher-Price: Fisher-Price’s site is bright, playful, and fun – just like the brand. Authentic photography, whimsical icons, patterns, and animations come together to create a visual identity perfect for children’s toys.
- Formula1: The site showcases the brand’s bold fonts and colors. Combined with high-quality photos, lines and patterns, and memorable track illustrations, the site perfectly captures the adventurous spirit of the sport.
- Chobani: With contemporary photography and typography, and playful icons and illustrations, Chobani’s site visually positions the brand as a fresh, fun, and nutritious option.

With just 15 seconds to capture users’ attention, perfecting your site’s imagery is crucial. By aligning your site’s visual story with your brand identity, you’ll gain trust, build a connection with visitors, and create a positive and memorable site experience.

Uncover various website imagery types to boost your brand's connection with users. Draw inspiration from brands that deploy visuals resourcefully.

Strategy & Research

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Tony Diaz

Service Desk Lead

Leader of Fruition's Service Desk

Education

Fun Fact from Tony