Essentials Improvement Guide

To build a better Essentials site, a more holistic process needs to be used when reading and interpreting the DCT. The DCT contains all of the necessary elements to build a great website but often times finding and interpreting that information can be a bit confusing. This guide is here to help!

Read and evaluate all sections of the DCT (5-10min) 

The DCT is like a puzzle which contains all the pieces needed to build the site. It is not necessarily a step-by-step guide and requires looking at all the sections, and not just skipping ahead to the Website Details section. Ask the following questions as you read through each section: What is the industry or purpose of the site? How do the choices input in the DCT fit the industry? Are there any items in the DCT that don’t make sense or fit? 

Research the industry (5min)

Once you have evaluated the DCT info and pieced the puzzle together it’s time to do some research. Use wdgallery.com (other resources may also be used) to search for other industry specific sites and see how they fit within your DCT evaluation.

Hint: Make sure to do your research based on location (i.e., Security Installation in Atlanta GA, Comedian in United States, Fish & Chips restaurant in UK, etc.).

Theme settings: Theme, Color, Fonts, Buttons (5-10min)

Based on the DCT Evaluation and Industry Research you will be choosing the Theme, Color, Fonts, and Button styles for the site. These are the building blocks of how the site will look.

• Theme: select a theme that matches the industry and overall feel for the site
• Color: choose a color that best reflects the DCT research (unless a specific color has been given in the DCT). You can also select the overall color scheme between Light>Colorful>Dark. Individual sections on the site can also be set to a color as you are building out each page.
• Fonts: choose a font group that fits your DCT research (unless a specific font group has been given in the DCT). You can also use the Advanced Options to choose a Primary and Secondary font manually. Additionally, you can choose a separate font for the Site Title in the header.
• Buttons: There is a Primary (used for dominant actions, like “Subscribe”) and Secondary (used for supportive actions, like “Learn more”) button style. You can choose a different style for each button.

Header & Footer: (5min)

• Header:
  • Keep in mind that it’s NOT always possible to include a CTA or phone number in the Header navigation area. Most themes will place these items in the Hero section rather than in the header navigation area.
  • It’s often best to use the theme that works best for the site rather than using a theme that has these items in the header navigation.
• Footer:
  • Keep in mind that the footer can only contain the Copyright, Footer Note, Social Media, and Navigation. Badge/Cert, Map, Call to action, and Forms cannot be included in the footer.
  • If a 3 column design (or other customer layout) is requested it may be possible to do this by using a content module just above the footer with a similar background color.

Images (time is included in the home page and content sections below)

Images are another important building block for a great looking site.

• When using stock images don’t rely solely on the built in W+M stock images. Using other resources will help assure all sites don’t end up looking the same, which is especially important on W+M. You can find all approved resources here: https://styleguide.wdsgallery.com/resources/.
• If the customer provided images which are mostly, or all, stock images it is ok to choose and add additional stock images. If all custom images are provided by the customer DO NOT add stock images.
• Don’t rely on the default image settings. Try different settings to see what works best (i.e., change the image shape, use black & white, zoom in or zoom out, etc.)

Home Page (60-90min)

The home page is the most important part of the site. It is meant to grab a visitor’s attention and make them want to read and discover the rest of the site. It’s also where you should focus most of the time on the build. which will help setting up the rest of the pages a breeze.

• Experiment with different modules, and module settings, to find what works best.
• Experiment with font sizes and styles.
  Each module that contains text has settings to adjust the Style and Size of the font for that module. It also has an option to Apply the new font settings to all similar text across the website.

Content/Internal Pages (10-20min/page)

Occasionally, a callout for a specific feature or content is not included in the Website Details section of the DCT and you will need to review the DCT to make sure all content is correctly added to the site.

• Pay special attention to the mention of special features or functionality (i.e., blog, gallery, schedule, etc.).
• W+M often requires breaking up the provided content in creative ways. It’s ok to place a heading in one area and the text in a separate area if it makes sense. You may also break up a paragraph or even use the first sentence of a paragraph as a heading for emphasis.

TOTAL TIME: (105-180min)