Website portfolio

Salmon Creek Cafe Serves Up WordPress

screenshot Salmon Creek Cafe website

Visual Design by Tyler Potts
WordPress Child Theme Development by Scott Marlow

A fresh mobile responsive WordPress website for Salmon Creek Cafe in Burien. This fun redesign, with custom photos by Tyler Potts, replaces a SquareSpace site that staff found difficult to edit.

My favorite feature of the new site is the easy to read (HTML) menus, formatted in simple single columns. Too many restaurants publish their menus via cumbersome, difficult to read PDFs; HTML content is mobile responsive and much more accessible. We also emphasized the contact information, which restaurant patrons should be able to find easily.

To add value, we chose to custom skin an existing template Theme, Dara, by Automattic. Built on _Underscores, the overall page size is 717 Kb, about 1/3 the industry median page size of ~2.1 Mb.

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Fast Websites Perform Better

screenshot Washington School-based health website

Visual Design by Heidi Grace
WordPress Theme Development by Scott Marlow

This state affiliate site borrows its brand identity from the national School-Based Health Alliance.

A map helps stakeholders locate over 50 Washington State School-Based Health Centers. A dynamic blog publishes information on advocacy activities, events, funding opportunities, and jobs; visitors can subscribe by email to automatically receive these updates.

Based on _Underscores, the WordPress Theme is only 590 Kb – 76% smaller than the national site’s 2.5 Mb page size – with 64% fewer web server requests (30). Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are less than 40-60.

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Empowering Marketers. Strengthening Websites.

screenshot Exodus Housing website
Visual Design by Heidi Grace
WordPress Web Development by Scott Marlow

A mobile-first visual redesign for Exodus Housing–  a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports families fleeing domestic violence by providing access to permanent housing, tailored services and community resources.

With an overall page size of 336 Kb, 84% smaller than the industry median, and only 16 web server requests – this site receives a Pingdom performance score of 93/100.

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WordPress. Fast. Affordable. Effective.

Pinpoint Strategic Communications marketing firm screenshot
Client: Pinpoint Strategic Communications

Scope of Work
Branding
Content management
Front-End web development
Performance optimization
Security hardening
Search engine optimization
Visual design

Team: Pinpoint Strategic Communications, Scott Marlow

My latest website collaboration with Tami Vileta of Pinpoint Strategic Communications – a Seattle-based marketing agency specializing in brand development, loyalty marketing, event promotion, email marketing, collateral development, and integrated campaigns.

The new marketing firm website features icon fonts, image galleries, online forms, responsive grid layouts, social media & sharing integration, and SSL protection.

Performance Metrics

Performance WordPress Site Benchmark
Google Mobile Speed: 71
Google Desktop Speed 85
Pingdom 91 faster than 87% of tested sites
WebPageTest Speed Index 1,350 median = ~4,493
top 10% = <1,388
Web Page Size 1.1 Mb In 2017, average page size = ~2.4 Mb
median page size = ~1.9 Mb
Web Server Requests 53 < 40 – 60 recommended

Not only is Scott an absolute expert in responsive web development, he’s willing to think out of the box to bring ideas to life, he does diligent research and utilizes resources if he’s presented with challenges and problem solves, he’s incredibly flexible, accommodating, and personable to work with, and he handles pressure-cooker deadlines with grace and calm. I would ever so highly recommend developing your site with such a partner and would do so again in a heartbeat. Thank you!
Tamara Vileta, owner, Pinpoint Strategic Communications

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Cushy CMS to WordPress CMS Conversion

Dumas Bay retreat center screenshot

Client: Dumas Bay Centre

Scope of Work
Accessibility Improvements
Copyediting and content migration
Front-End web development
Performance optimization
Security hardening
Search engine optimization
Visual redesign

Team: Cipalla Communications, Scott Marlow, Joan van den Berg

Dumas Bay Centre is a unique event & retreat venue owned by the City of Federal Way.

Before the website redesign, center staff were limited to editing existing website content using Cushy CMS, a WYSIWYG HTML editing tool. To add new content, city IT staff needed to upload files to the web host.

The website was migrated to a new host and WordPress was configured to allow full rich-content editing. The new mobile-friendly site features a more modern look, with image galleries, oEmbed video support, site search, SSL protection, and feedback and rental inquiry forms. All implemented with accessibility in mind.

Performance Metrics

Performance WordPress Site Benchmark
Google Mobile Speed: 68
Google Desktop Speed 81
Pingdom 87 faster than 87% of tested sites
WebPageTest Speed Index 1,017 median = ~4,493
top 10% = <1,388
YSlow 81 average score = 70
Web Page Size 526 Kb In 2017, average page size = ~2.4 Mb
median page size = ~1.9 Mb
Web Server Requests 27 < 40 – 60 recommended

 

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