Thoughts & Updates

WordPress 5.0 — aka Gutenberg — will soon be officially released. Gutenberg represents a major change for WordPress and is meant to shift WordPress from being essentially a content management system to being a more robust web development tool. Gutenberg has great potential, but is (at the time of writing this post) very new, and is still being updated almost faster than it can be tested. In our opinion and that of many fellow developers, it is NOT yet stable or usable.  Our team is carefully watching the Gutenberg rollout and how it will impact sites we’ve built or are currently building.

We’re lucky, here at Mangrove, in that we get to work with some pretty great people. In addition to our team of designers and developers (who are rad), our clients are an amazing bunch. We feel it’s important to take some time to highlight the important work that they are doing, and this month we are shining our spotlight on Elemental Excelerator (EEx). We spoke to their Communications Lead Lauren Tonokawa about the work they are doing to make the world a better place.

An unfortunate reality these days is that websites are under pretty constant attack from hackers; according to WPBeginner.com, Google blacklists around 70,000 websites each week for different kinds of nefarious online behaviors! Most hackers utilize “brute force attacks” where they try as many different combinations of login credentials as possible to get into a site. Once inside, they might steal valuable client information or mess with your website just because they can. So, what can you do to protect your website and avoid these online pests?

Making the web accessible to the widest range of people possible – including people with disabilities – is important for a variety of reasons. It’s the moral thing to do, a practical thing to do, and it’s the legal thing to do.

When you set out to build your website, one of the initial decisions you’ll have to make is where to host your site. What exactly is a web hosting service? What do they do? What should you look for when choosing your provider? We’re going to answer all those questions right here.

Five companies in Tahoe and Truckee have taken their social and environmental commitment to a new level by formalizing it as part of their corporate structure. Mangrove Web Development, bigtruck, Environmental Incentives, Eagle Protect PBC and the Law Office of Lara Pearson joined the B Corp movement built on the belief that businesses should be a force for good.

You’ve likely gotten more emails about GDPR lately than you ever thought possible.  It’s a little overwhelming and can be confusing, but don’t stress.  Here’s a quick overview of what it is and what we suggest you do to comply.

What is the process for building a website?  What happens when you call an agency? How long does it usually take to get a site up and running? How much creative control will you have? Are you expected to know the difference between CSS and HTML? What is WordPress, anyway?

We receive many inquiries asking for advice on how to approach updates to existing websites versus creating a new site. Instead of wasting time & money performing seemingly small fixes that end up taking weeks to complete, a rebuild allows your developer to quickly add upgrades without breaking any previous code. Read on if you’re considering adding any changes to your website in the near future.

In late 2016, we became a Certified B Corp and shortly after we adopted the Benefit Corporation legal status. That means we are not only third-party certified by the nonprofit B Lab, as a company that has met rigorous environmental and social standards, but we are also legally required to conduct our business in this way.

Maiya and Marie attended their first B Corp Leadership Development, or BLD, at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California. The gathering brought together more than 50 leaders in the Bay Area B Corp community to share best practices and leverage the network of over 200 B Corp Certified companies. With discussion topics in the form of Open Cafes, B Corps discussed building B2B relationships, collaborative marketing efforts, and participants presented environmentally and socially responsible products made by fellow B Corps. Here are some great takeaways from our first BLD.

Helen Lawrence, Bonita Gutierrez, and Gabriela Monico are the trio that make up the Lawrence practice. They offer deportation defense and representation in affirmative immigration processes to the Bay Area’s diverse immigrant population. The practice directly represents families and individuals before immigration courts and agencies, managing over 175 open cases at any given time. Providing low-cost legal services in English, Spanish, and Portuguese is just one aspect of the support the firm extends to immigrants seeking accessible and effective legal representation.

World Trust is a leading organization in social justice. They work with clients to address systemic racism and unconscious bias, by creating workshops, films, and a robust curriculum that gives people the tools to learn and evolve. Mangrove Web has worked with them to create an online presence for their groundbreaking materials.

Last month we shared that we applied to become a B Corp. Our certification is now complete and we are thrilled to join the 1,800-plus global companies that use their B Corp status as a way of doing social and environmental good.

Here’s the thing: Working with professional writers to develop your website content is almost always a great idea. We especially recommend this for clients who don’t have a go-to marketing team at the ready, or in cases where existing content could use a refresh. Most development companies are strictly focused on design and dev. The copy that lives on your site is the client’s domain, so the web team can focus on aesthetic and functionality.

The Internet is vast and search results can be intimidating. As a site owner, it’s easy to wonder how people will find your site. Making your website visible to those searching for it can be complex, but learning the basics is well worth your time. To start out, we recommend that you learn the fundamentals of how Google and similar search engines work.

Mangrove Web is in the process of becoming a B Corporation, also known as a certified B Corp. We are feeling pretty pumped about it. Once we’re certified, our B Corp status will help further solidify our commitment that as a for-profit tech company, we can do a lot of good.

Mangrove is made up of people who love to work hard. We also love our ability to work remotely and independently, which affords us the freedom to travel, live in interesting places, and work on the schedules that best support our lives.

Some might see the distances that separate us as a tough challenge to overcome. But our geographically diverse team is actually something we consider a strength.

We’re passionate about building beautiful, professionally designed websites. This means that we create customized websites, so the backend of your site is specific to your needs. This also means that we don’t use pre-existing WordPress themes, and this comes as a surprise to some. To the non-developer, a generic theme can look like a lifesaver, but for our clients, we maintain that themes are more trouble than they’re worth. For functional websites that look great and are easy to update, custom is the way to go. 

One of our focus areas when building websites for clients is not only how the end user will experience the site, but how our clients will be able to manage the backend and have a tool that serves their ongoing needs. We rely on a few different Content Management Systems (CMSs) to provide this backend infrastructure, and choose the platform according to client needs. But what are all of these systems and why do we choose one over the other? We begin by explaining WordPress.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, has become a buzz term in the last few years. The topic undoubtedly comes up while planning a new website, however we find that there is often a lack of understanding about what SEO really is, what it does, whether it’s necessary, and how to approach it.

When building websites for clients, we focus on how the end user will experience the site, and how our clients will be able to manage the backend and have a tool that serves their ongoing needs. We rely on a few different Content Management Systems (CMSs) to provide this backend infrastructure, and choose the platform specifically according to clients needs. But what are all of these systems and why do we choose one over the other? We discussed the benefits of WordPress in a previous post. Here, we explain Squarespace.