FAQ

While we can conduct maintenance on existing WordPress websites using a variety of builders such as Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, Avada, and others, we only build new sites using coded PHP solutions to avoid being limited on what we can do for you.

Anything in the realm of PHP and .NET is possible, such as Laravel and ASP.NET. We’ve also helped with CodeIgniter, Symfony, unstructured PHP, and semi-structured with object-oriented programming. Refer to our capability statement for more information.

We’ve had numerous requests for assistance with proprietary systems such as Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace, all of which we can work with, but clients don’t understand how limiting and difficult it can be. While we can help you on those platforms, we advocate for open-source solutions for your benefit.

Far from it! We have full design services to support good website user experiences and provide project consulting from a holistic standpoint; we are a digital solutions partner, not a freelancer or a “quick build for cheap” agency. We’re committed to solving problems by strategically implementing technology, whether a website, web application, or custom piece of software.

We have great relationships with specific sourcing pools in Oregon and offshore, so if we need to recruit someone specifically for your project and add them to our team as a leased employee or white label contractor, we can discuss that. We’ve done this for larger companies before, and we ask for (on average) 45 – 60 days minimum to recruit the right senior candidate that will fit our culture. All such hires have a 90-day probationary period on our side.

We are purists and minimalists. Our team believes that sites and applications should be custom coded with only the resources required for the project. Due to this, our builds tend to be highly structured and use a minimal number of plugins and libraries, with most features programmed by us internally.

A large part of development processes can include discovery, the scope of work, finalizing contracts and expectations, moving into concepts and designs, and finally, development, quality assurance, and deployment. As professionals, we will strive to get this done right the first time by following our standard practices. The development process can take anywhere from a few weeks for small tasks, to a few months for medium-sized tasks, to over a year for large software projects.  In the end, it all depends on your needs.

No! It all depends on your business and operational needs, along with who would be managing the daily site administration on your end. Some larger clients prefer to have our agency make content changes (it can be faster and less stressful), while many request us to build the cost of a custom interface for self-service into the final project budget. We’ll work with you to determine your needs and propose a solution that fits your organization’s culture and budget.

No, but we use trusted hosting providers and can assist you in acquiring a hosting account based on your specific needs and budget. Then, we can help you manage that account. We don’t believe it’s the job of development firms to host sites for clients. It’s a significant conflict of interest.

It depends on the project, but we tend to discuss your needs first and foremost. This planning typically takes a few weeks, and then we confirm what you’re looking for, then start the wireframe process. After wireframes are done (to solidify the concept), we move into full mockups. Once mockups are approved, we will begin building your final product.

A lot goes into design planning when attempting to solve business problems. We often want to install behavioral scripts on your site or web app and monitor user behavioral patterns to determine what’s happening so we can try to best formulate a solution. We’ll also look at your Google Analytics and Console accounts to spot trends. With this data, we can devise a plan based on best practices for User Experience (UX) and a good User Interface (UI) design to help alleviate your conversion problems.

We believe in the power of behaviorally based design and the benefits that it can bring to your business. This approach to design involves using insights about user behavior to inform our design decisions, so as to create intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that resonate with your audience. Even when there is scarce data specific to your business or industry, we adopt design principles, user experience (UX) trends, and best practices established by the broader digital community as our baseline. This ensures we design a fundamentally sound and effective interface that improves user engagement and conversion rates right off the bat. Over time, as we gather more user data specific to your site, we refine and enhance this design based on those insights. By marrying design best practices with behavioral insights, we create a design that not only looks good but also works optimally for your specific audience.

Yes. We use behavioral analytic tools to review user sessions on the website or web application and then make modifications based on those experiences. In some problematic or extreme cases, we can conduct A/B testing to determine the efficacy of a funnel, page, or system and then suggest revisions based on best practices.

That’s not advisable or possible for us, because a design is still required to build the site, page, or section to standards, no matter how simple. Developers are not designers, and designs serve as a blueprint for the developers, therefore they are critical to delivering a successful product.

It’s not out of the question, but we’ll need to discuss it beforehand as we don’t design based on looks alone, we design based on operational needs and keep a solutions-focused approach.  Oftentimes clients want to cut corners by having just a “web designer” provide a good-looking template that doesn’t represent the client’s brand well, nor does it present solutions to conversion problems.  We may want to update those designs and tweak the funneling and page flow to satisfy best practices, otherwise we can’t build something that we don’t feel will perform.

We have an online collaborative tool designed to visualize website structures and designs in the planning stages. It allows us to create interactive sitemaps that can reviewed and provide feedback on, facilitating clear communication about the website’s proposed structure, flow, and design. The flexibility to adapt the map as the design evolves, along with features like color-coding, page labeling, and comment addition, enhances collaboration and ensures everyone involved has the exact understanding of the designs being implemented.

We offer focused, integrated digital marketing with website and web application development because it’s crucial for ensuring online visibility and user engagement. A well-crafted website or web application, reinforced with effective digital marketing strategies, drives targeted traffic and encourages user interaction. SEO techniques can improve your site’s searchability and rankings, while PPC and social media marketing can promote your site to a wider audience. On the other hand, a properly developed website or application keeps users engaged and encourages conversions. Therefore, unifying digital marketing efforts with website development ensures your online platform is not just user-friendly and engaging, but also highly discoverable in the crowded digital space.

Technical marketing includes social media management, website optimizations, SEO, and PPC campaigns as all are integral components of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Social media management helps engage with your audience, build your brand, and increase your visibility. Website optimizations ensure your site is user-friendly, quick to load, and easy to navigate, enhancing user experience and retention. SEO techniques elevate your website’s ranking in search engine results, driving organic traffic to your site. Meanwhile, PPC campaigns allow you to directly target your audience with personalized ads, boosting conversions. Collectively, these tasks help increase your online presence, engage effectively with your customers, and ultimately drive business growth.

We love to dive deep into why there are inactions or incomplete conversions on pages. To assist in this effort, we install user tracking tools that monitor interactivity with the page and user interface elements to understand better how the site or app is used. Behavioral analytics plays a pivotal role in helping businesses understand how users are interacting with their websites and identifying where improvements can be made. By analyzing actions like page views, clicks, and time spent on pages, businesses can gain insights into user behavior, gauge the efficacy of different website elements, and identify bottlenecks in their conversion funnels. Optimizing according to this data can lead to better user engagement, higher conversion rates, and improved customer retention. Furthermore, behavioral analytics also provide valuable insights into customer preferences, helping businesses tailor their offerings to better meet customer needs.

Digital marketing techniques are instrumental in helping businesses establish a strong online presence, reach a wider audience, and drive customer engagement. Techniques like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing enable businesses to target specific demographics, track customer behaviors, and assess the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. This data-driven approach provides valuable insights, allowing for optimization of marketing strategies and enhancement of ROI. Furthermore, digital marketing aids in building a brand’s reputation, fostering customer loyalty, and increasing conversions and sales, making it an invaluable tool for business growth in today’s digital era.

We can handle solutions-based and focused management of your social media and digital advertising tasks, especially when you don’t have dedicated staff for it. We understand the nuances of different social media platforms and the best practices for digital advertising. Our team will create and manage your social media profiles, develop and curate engaging content, and monitor and drive customer interactions. We’ll also structure and optimize your digital advertising campaigns, including search and display advertising, to target key demographics and maximize your reach. By acting as your partner, we free up your time and resources and give you the peace of mind to focus on your core business functions, while we enhance your online presence and reach.

We’re adept at supplementing existing marketing staff by providing specialized digital marketing services to elevate your company’s online presence and reach. While your in-house team focuses on general marketing and brand promotion tasks, our experts can handle more technical, specialized roles such as SEO optimization, advanced data analytics, PPC campaign management, content marketing, and social media strategy. Our collaboration can fill any talent gaps you may have, providing you with access to highly skilled, dedicated digital marketing professionals who stay abreast of the latest trends and technologies. Through this partnership, we can augment your existing marketing operations, bring in fresh perspectives and strategies, and significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your overall marketing endeavors.

It’s crucial for businesses to understand that substantial digital marketing results, especially in organic strategies such as SEO, usually take time. Despite promises from some companies of quick fixes or instant results, these are not realistic due to various factors involved – competition, the time required for search engines to index and rank content, the necessity to build trust and authority, and the nature of search engine algorithm updates. While minor improvements may be seen within a few months, substantial SEO results typically manifest between six to twelve months. At IronGlove Studio, we believe in setting accurate timelines and managing expectations. Although we implement strategies in the most effective and efficient manner, we underscore the need for patience and treating digital marketing as a long-term investment that reaps significant benefits in the end.

We want potential clients to understand that setting aside a realistic budget for marketing is just as important as budgeting for development needs; these are two different, yet equally critical components of a successful online presence. Development budgets ensure a robust, functional, and user-friendly website or app, while a marketing budgets are allocated towards promoting these platforms we create for you, increasing brand visibility, and attracting traffic. Particularly in challenging economic times, maintaining, if not increasing marketing efforts, is vital to your long-term survival. Even if businesses see a downturn in sales during such periods, a consistent marketing effort – especially in brand recognition – keeps the company in the minds of consumers, helping to ensure a faster recovery when conditions improve. Balancing development and marketing expenses is a strategic move that can significantly impact a business’s longevity and resilience.

The science of consumer behavior supports the importance of maintaining brand recognition even during economic downturns. Studies have shown that consistent brand visibility contributes significantly to top-of-mind awareness, meaning customers are more likely to think of your brand when the need for your product or service arises, even in tough economic times. This continuous engagement with consumers helps ensure that your brand is the first one they think of when they’re ready to purchase, giving you a competitive advantage as conditions improve. Consequently, investing in brand recognition during downturns isn’t just a marketing strategy, it’s a proven approach based on consumer psychology that’s implemented regularly by nationally recognized companies.