Hi friends ππ» A line from a podcast caught my attention last week: "working with a good web person to do your website throws people into an existential crisis because they don't know what to say ... the web designer isn't going to tell you what to say ... [the designer raises] all these questions ... and they panic, and the website is the inciting event that causes this identity panic." I've seen this first hand on website projects, and on other communications projects too. I want to unpack...
17 days agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Hi friends ππ» This week, a brain dump of thoughts about SEO in the age of ChatGPT. If you've been wondering whether you still need to pay attention to SEO and you want to hear my π£ opinions, read on ... Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up page "Should we still be doing SEO?" I was in a community call with a bunch of other comms-for-good professionals recently, and someone asked this question: "Now that everyone's using ChatGPT for...
24 days agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
Hi friends ππ» It's been a busy seven days! This email has some thoughts from WordCamp US, and pictures of a brand new kitten. What more could you want? Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up page Talking nonprofit technology at WordCamp US 2025 Last WednesdayβFriday, I attended WordCamp US 2025 which was conveniently located right here in Portland OR. While WordPress has been in my life since maybe 2007 (?? something like that) I'd never...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Hi friends ππ» This week I have another fun website feature to share from a recent project. But first, a quick π£ announcement: I'll be at WordCamp US here in Portland, OR this week (Aug 27-29) I'm excited to be around a bunch of other people who are excited about WordPress too!! If you'll be there too and want to meet up IRL, email me or shoot me a message on LinkedIn. Now back to this week's email ... Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Hi friends ππ» This week, a simple piece of advice for organizations embarking on a website project and looking to avoid unpleasant surprises down the road. Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up page When website projects fail after launch I was speaking with a group of nonprofit communications professionals recently about managing website projects and a couple of participants described having had similar bad, experiences in the past: They...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Hi friends ππ» This week I'm shining a spotlight on a brand new Resource Library I launched for the team at Listen4Good. Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up page How to organize your mountain of content So many nonprofit websites are home to a MOUNTAIN of content that is difficult to access and explore, especially when the starting point is an archive page that shows ten results and "Page 1 of 59" at the bottom. Who's going to start...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Hi friends ππ» In between client projects, I'm still working β incrementally β on the refresh of the Blue Hills Digital website that I started talking about in May. I started pushing some updates live last week, and decided to keep a public changelog of these updates, to keep me moving forward, and to give you some insight into all the steps it takes to overhaul an existing website. This is part of a series in which I'm writing about the process of refreshing the Blue Hills Digital website.I...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Hi friends ππ» This week, a super-helpful new resource to help you understand website accessibility guidelines. Useful if you're a website manager interacting with a developer or agency, AND if you're developing content for a website and need to understand your responsibilities even if you're not touching the code. Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up page Making WCAG easier to understand If you're a website owner (or designer/developer),...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Hi friends ππ» Yesterday I wrote up a project scope for a (likely) client to tackle a WordPress website they couldn't access π€ͺ Read on to hear how this happened, how unfortunately common this is, and how to avoid it happening to you. Want links to recent emails or a sign-up link to share? Go to The Digital Landscape sign-up page Why having a website you can't access is more common than you might think. If you're lucky enough to work in a well-resourced setting and have your ducks in a row, you...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 3 min read