Packerland Websites is growing. Two experienced website developors, Tom Norman and Miranda Schlise-Gomez, have joined the staff at the Green Bay office, 2140 Velp Ave. The website builder now employs three full-time website developers. They create powerful, effective sites for businesses, nonprofits and municipalities.

“Having three full-time developers on staff gives our company a wide breadth of abilities and deep scope of talent,” said Bill Koehne, owner of Packerland Websites. “It also allows me to shift my focus from developing sites to developing business strategies and goals for each client. We have so much more to offer clients today than I imagined eight years ago when we opened.”

Experienced website developers

Norman, of Green Bay, worked in the security field for 15 years before changing careers to website development. In 2013 he earned a Web Development Certificate at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. He has nine years of experience designing websites.

“I enjoy trying new processes and can adapt to new and unknown situations,” Norman said. “Every project is different. Different design, issues, challenges. I really love the building process, putting it all together.”

Norman also enjoys working with varied clientele who look to Packerland Websites to grow and promote their business or organization. “Each client is unique in their needs and behaviors which makes every interaction important,” he said. In his free time, Norman enjoys reading, writing, watching sports, playing video games and doing woodworking and refinishing projects.

Making websites come to life

Schlise-Gomez, of Green Bay, graduated in 2017 from NWTC with an Associate Degree in Web Development. She was previously employed as a web developer for an Oshkosh advertising agency. Schlise-Gomez said she enjoys the “puzzle aspect” of designing websites.

“There is always a new piece to put together,” she said. “When it comes to working with clients, I enjoy the satisfaction on their face when they see their website come to life.” She tackles web development from a practical standpoint; she integrates the technical and artistic elements into a unified package.

“My approach is to find out what the client needs and do my best to accomplish it,” she said. After hours, Schlise-Gomez enjoys playing guitar, singing, and writing songs. She also enjoys going to Escape Rooms and Brewers games.

Contact our website developers

With the addition of two developers, Packerland Websites is ready to serve more clients at its Green Bay and Abrams offices. Contact the website professionals at 920-826-5901 or Bill@PackerlandWebsites.com.

Websites built by the pros at Packerland Websites effectively market your business 24/7. Long after you’ve closed your doors for the day, your website is still working for you. To keep your website up and running (thus making you money), Packerland Websites introduced a new Support Ticket system. Occasionally, a website will have issues that need to be fixed. You might see something on your website that just doesn’t look right, or perhaps you want to add something out of the ordinary to your website.

Team of website developers ready with support

Updating a website regularly with fresh content keeps it up-to-date and interesting for return users. Additionally, new content, posts, and pages improve a website’s ranking on search engine pages like Google. With the content management system we use, you can easily update your website yourself. However, some techniques might be beyond your comfort zone. That’s where our team of three full-time website developers steps in to help. You can count on the Packerland Websites team for updates and trouble shooting. The Support Ticket system we developed streamlines the process.

How to Submit a Support Ticket

Submitting a Support Ticket requires a few simple steps:

1. Go to the Packerland Websites’ Contact Us Page and click the New Ticket button.
2. Fill in the blanks on the Support Ticket form.
3. Be detailed in your request. Include the page URL and a detailed description of what you need.
4. Click the submit button.
5. Watch for a confirmation email reporting that your Support Ticket is being processed
6. Once our team resolves your issues, you’ll receive a confirmation email.

Security, functionality, performance is important to us

Finally, if you need support for website components you purchased, such as domain names, web hosting, SSL certificates, email accounts, or other component products, please sign into your account and contact support directly. Support is available 24/7. The ongoing security, functionality, and performance of your website are important to us. Let us know how we can update or change your website to maintain its optimal performance. The Support Ticket system makes it easy.

Alexa Vander Wyst has joined the team of Packerland Websites in Green Bay as a WordPress web developer. A Little Chute native, Alexa earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Communications at Northern Michigan University in 2016. After graduation she landed a job designing websites in the U.P. More recently, she was employed as a graphic designer and website coordinator at a promotional products company in De Pere.

“With her background in graphic design and website development, Alexa brings a combination of talents to her new role at Packerland Websites,” said Bill Koehne, owner. “Aside from her technical skills, she has a knack for communicating with customers to help them create websites that meet their business goals.”

Alexa said she’s always had an interest in art, and the more she learned about graphic design the more she liked it.

“I like solving problems and I like organizing things, which are very good skills for a graphic designer,” she said. She’s looking forward to applying her visual design skills to create vibrant and user-friendly websites for clients of Packerland Websites.

In addition to her role as a full-time website developer, Alexa works part time behind the scenes at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. She enjoys listening to music and spending time outdoors, especially hiking and downhill skiing.

“With Alexa onboard, Packerland Websites is poised and ready to take on more clients,” Bill said. Contact us at 920-826-5901 or visit us at 2140 Velp Avenue in Howard to find out how we can help you.

Here are six things to consider when snapping a website banner photo, because you want to greet visitors with a look that says, “Wow!” You have only one opportunity to make a good first impression, so your landing page needs to be attractive and memorable. That’s why an impressive website banner is so important. Visitors can quickly scan the banner image to learn about your website and your business. Colorful photos work great as website banners. They engage viewers and draw attention to your brand.

So let’s take a look at what makes a good website banner photo, because snapping the right photo takes some planning.

1. Extra wide image

• Think of a website banner as a long sign stretched across a wide area.

• Most banners are three to four times longer than they are tall, 437 pixels tall and 1,750 pixels wide.

• Take a banner photo by holding your camera in the landscape position, not vertical.

2. Cropping a Banner Photo

The digital photos you snap will undoubtedly be square, not rectangular, which means you’ll need to crop the top and bottom of the photo so you’re left with a long, narrow rectangular image that serves as a website banner photo. To do this, begin with the end in mind. You know you’ll need a wide image, so when you pose the photo, think about how the image will look after it is cropped. Here are some tips:

• Remember that at least a third of the top and/or bottom of the photo will be cropped away, so place your subject appropriately.

• Position your subject to the right or left side, so that once the image is made into a banner, text can be overlaid on the banner without covering up the subject.

• Use a high resolution camera in order to maintain the clarity you need once you crop your photo.

3. Background

Put some thought into how the background looks when posing your subject.

• Avoid busy or distracting backgrounds that will take interest away from your main subject.

• Stand far from your subject (or stand closer but zoom out) so you have background on both the right and left sides of your subject.

4. Composition

• Rather than centering your main subject in the photo, offset the subject one-third of the way into the photo. This composition will increase interest and provide space to overlay a call to action box.

5. Go Panoramic

Consider using a panoramic setting on your camera or Smartphone to capture a wide screen image.

• Keep your camera as level as possible as you pan across your subject.

• Move the camera, not your body, when taking panoramic shots.

• Avoid panoramic photography of moving objects. The blurriness might ruin your photo.

6. Start experimenting

• To capture the best wide screen image for a website banner, take lots of images.

• Move around as you snap photos to experiment with different angles

• Move forward and backward to photograph subjects at varying distances from your subject

• Try different poses.

• Avoid harsh shadows.

Have fun creating the images that show off your brand, because website banners that “pop” will encourage visitors to more fully interact with your website.

At Packerland Websites we take privacy and security very seriously. We believe your website should be protected from hackers and eavesdroppers, and one way to ensure this is to transfer data along a secure connection. This secure connection is represented by the letters HTTPS in the URL of a website.

HTTP is short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which describes the way data is sent over the Internet. In comparison, HTTPS adds an S for Secure, which means the data is encrypted to protect it more fully. The final S shows that the data on a website is transferred over a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection. To get your website hosted on this secure connection, an SSL certificate is needed.

I know this is a bit technical, but there’s a really good reason to understand what HTTPS means, especially after Oct. 27 because Google Chrome updated to a new version and websites beginning with HTTP instead of HTTPS are now flagged as “unsecure.”

When someone visits an HTTPS website, a green lock icon will be displayed to indicate the website has an extra layer of protection. When someone visits an HTTP website, a warning message will say the website is not secure. Customers who see this message might be afraid to interact with the website, thinking that their data might be more accessible to hackers.

Here’s how one Google article explains the new policy: “Passwords and credit cards are not the only types of data that should be private. Any type of data that users type into websites should not be accessible to others on the network, so starting in version 62, Chrome will show the ‘Not secure’ warning when users type data into HTTP sites.”

If Packerland Websites installed an online store on your website — no worries. You already have the SSL certificate and HTTPS connection you need for privacy and protection. We made sure of that.

For the rest of our clients, we recommend you upgrade to HTTPS. The SSL certificate once was optional, but now is the norm. You want to make your website as safe as possible for yourself and your visitors.

As an added benefit, switching to an HTTPS website should improve your Google ranking because Google considers SSL as a ranking signal.

Packerland Websites is investing over $14,000 in its hosting system over the next 15 months in order to provide clients with the most superior and secure hosting system. We encourage you to transfer to our newest system.

Everyone knows you can save money by buying in bulk. Because of the number of websites Packerland Websites hosts, we have reached a volume which results in savings for our clients. You can upgrade your entire hosting system for less than the cost of what you’re likely to spend if you purchase an SSL independently. We take care of the entire process. If you are a new client of Packerland Websites, HTTPS is now standard practice for our hosting system, so no action is necessary.

If you’d like to know more about the “Not secure” label, we invite you to read https://www.ecwid.com/blog/https-how-to-increase-search-engines-and-peoples-trust.html

Don’t you love it when things come together? We had the perfect melding of developer and client recently at Packerland Websites when our developer, Diane, was looking to buy property, and our client, Lisa Hanson, was looking to update the Hanson Realty website, Hanson-Realty.com.

Key features of

a real estate website

Right off the bat, Diane knew what she liked in a real estate website.

• Immediate access to a search bar to look for properties.
• A large number of listings on a search results page.
• Freedom to search the website without being required to create an account.
• Quickly visible stats for square footage, acreage, number of bedrooms, etc.
• A simple way to save a property to look at later
• An email notification for property updates, like price reductions
• Easy-to-find phone numbers for real estate agents

“If a site isn’t easy to search and appealing to me, I don’t want to stay on that site,” Diane says.

Searching the real estate website is easy

With multiple MLS feeds linked directly to the website, home and property buyers can scan through the properties on the market or narrow their search in several different ways. Maps show the locations of the properties for sale, and clickable markers provide a nugget of information about each property. Buyers can schedule showings online and use the Mortgage Calculator to determine how much the property might cost over time.

For parents of school-aged children, the school pages list the schools in the district and their Great Schools rating, plus images from the community and descriptions of the area.All this, and mobile friendly to boot!

Benefits for the real estate agents

The real estate website becomes a sales tool for Realtors. Agents may have their own accounts and can track the clients they’re working with and manage their own leads. They can change their profiles or add new listings. They can see who viewed their listings or saved a search and know if this individual is an active client. Emails from their clients go directly to them, not to a general mailbox where a message might be forwarded to the wrong agent.

To evaluate how the real estate website is working, analytics are built into the dashboard to measure traffic, emails, and other types of engagement.

WordPress is the website creation tool used by Packerland Websites. A great thing about WordPress is that it’s a content management system that’s user friendly and allows room for creativity.

What does this mean for you? It means that you get a great-looking and highly functional website built by Packerland Websites to specifically meet your business objectives. It also means that you have the ability to manage the content on your website yourself to keep it up-to-date and fresh.

Basic functions come naturally.
If you’re familiar with word processing software, then doing the basic functions in WordPress will come naturally. You don’t need a background in computer coding or technical knowledge to make adjustments.

Want to change your business hours or add a photo to your website? No need to call us! You’ve got the power at your fingertips to make the change.
We’ll even teach you how to wield this new and amazing power through a one-on-one training session. Plus, we’ll provide ongoing support if you get stuck.

Updating your website shouldn’t take a lot of your time, leaving you more time to concentrate on your business. Plus, you can share the responsibility of updates among multiple users.

Here’s a cool tool!
We’ve created an ingenious tool for you to use when you’re learning the ropes. We call it a Website Update Tutorial, or “WUT” for short, as in “WUT’s up?” “WUT’s happening?” and “WUT do think of me now?” But I digress…

The purpose of the WUT is to provide a starting point for routine changes. Under the “Our Services” tab of our website you’ll find the WUT, listing step-by-step instructions to make website updating easy. On our website you can watch a video or download a PDF of the WUT, or scroll through the instructions and visualize the process by looking at screen shots of the WUT.

Download the PDF of the WUT or visit https://packerlandwebsites.com/website-update-tutorial/ to see it online or watch the video tutorial.

You’re in the driver’s seat.
We created different formats of the WUT, but each format contains the same easy-to-follow guide. Use whichever tutorial suits you best. The important thing is that you feel comfortable updating your website in order to keep your message accurate and fresh.

We like to make things easy for our clients, and this tutorial is a great example of that philosophy. When you partner with Packerland Websites for a website, you’re getting a website built by Packerland; managed by you.