WordPress Training

Emily Journey & Associates

Emily Journey

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Our Team

Emily Journey
Emily Journey, MSW
Director of Instruction
President

Hi, I’m Emily Journey. I am a WordPress Trainer and consultant for marketing teams, IT departments, business owners, and administrative staff. When you have knowledge, understanding and control over the WordPress platform, you can:

  • Increase profit margins
  • Make more sales
  • Decrease web development costs

Personally, I don’t know any professional that would pass up those benefits. (Myself included!)

I’ve spent almost a decade delivering and refining my comprehensive WordPress Training program. Each of our instructors is personally trained by me and use my specific training methods.

Rachel Pfanz, B.S.
Lead Instructor
Vice-President
Rachel Pfanz joined us in Spring, 2017 and serves as the leader of our website management and training team. She is an expert with Genesis, Divi, and Avada WordPress themes.
Using a custom coded theme? Rachel will help you navigate obstacles and evaluate workarounds unique to your website situation. She will also help you figure out exactly what is possible and what is not possible with your particular custom theme.
Wondering what it will really take for your website to rank high in search results? As an expert in SEO, Rachel has answers to your questions about Search Engine Optimization.
Inquire about working with Rachel »
Kris Clifford, B.S.
Website Manager

Kris Clifford is our only team member 100% dedicated to website management services. She does not split her time between WordPress training and website management. Kris is responsible for managing our own website at emilyjourney.com as well as client websites. Kris is a master at applying good old fashioned common sense to technically sophisticated problems.
Inquire about working with Kris »
Eve
Eve Peratopoulos, B.A.
Website Manager

Eve Peratopoulos joined us in Spring 2020 and is dedicated to website management services. In addition to her WordPress expertise, she excels in solving coding problems that require programming knowledge. She is passionate about programming because it is a powerful tool for practical problem solving. The rest of us turn to Eve whenever we are dealing with an advanced coding problem in our client websites. We admire her use of creative problem-solving to fix complicated website problems quickly.
Inquire about working with Eve »
Mark
Mark McPhilimy, B.A.
WordPress Instructor

Mark McPhilimy has a reputation for going the extra mile for his clients. Is your website dependent upon a builder plugin for its page structure? Mark can help you understand and design with:

  • WP Bakery
  • Gutenberg Builder
  • Elementor
  • Cornerstone
  • Fusion Builder (Avada Theme)
  • Divi Builder, and more!

Starting your website from scratch or converting your website to a new theme? Mark has been there, done that. Got a Wix or Squarespace website? No sweat. Mark knows his way around these platforms, too.
Inquire about working with Mark »

Spanish WordPress Trainer
Jica Nava, B.A.
WordPress Instructor

Jica Nava is our Spanish language WordPress instructor. Jica has lived in the U.S. since 2010 and her country of origin is Venezuela in South America.
She has more than five years of experience with coaching and training individuals and small groups.
Inquire about working with Jica »

Erin
Erin Brooks, B.S.
Training Coordinator
Social Media Manager
Erin Brooks works to ensure everything in our office runs smoothly so we can focus on what we do best–WordPress! Erin is your first contact when you call or email our office which makes her job very important to all of us.
Needless to say, we trust her with our business.
You know who else trusts her with their business?
Our clients!
Erin manages the online reputation of several companies through social media management and promotion. Whether you need help with LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram, she has got you covered with all three platforms.
Contact Erin about Social Media Management for your business »
Adam Knolls
Adam Knolls, CPA
Controller
Sales Manager
Adam Knolls is a practicing Certified Public Accountant and works to ensure our company doors stay open. He truly understands what it means to protect our company interests all of the time–while the rest of the team looks out for yours!
If you get the rare chance to hear from Adam, it’s only because Erin is on vacation and he loves to answer the phone when she is out of the office! (Who knew?)

Getting here

When I started learning WordPress, I did it the way many of you have tried: without help.
Finally, after almost two years of persistent effort and building a few websites on trade, I had a solid handle on the platform.

I didn’t stop there.

I hired a virtual coach in Denver to teach me Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

During our virtual training sessions, I was impressed with how easily he communicated his knowledge and authority on the topic – he provided answers for questions I didn’t even know to ask! That was my first experience with virtual learning and it was worth every penny.

Despite my initial hesitations about virtual training, I am thankful that I took the plunge. I know it can seem “not quite as good” as face-to-face learning. I wondered:

  • Could I really learn this way?
  • Would I get as much value from the training?

Thankfully, I didn’t let my doubts get the best of me. That virtual training experience not only changed the way I did business – it changed my life.

I invested in WordPress and training for the same reason you’re here today: independence. For me, I wanted the independence to transition from selling for other people to selling my own material.

For you, independence may mean something different. Maybe you want to:

  • Save money by not having to hire someone to do this for you.
  • Break free from a reliance on an unresponsive marketing agency.
  • Equip your marketing department to handle the website work in-house.
  • Handle this responsibility that’s been handed to you by your boss.

My path to mastering WordPress led me down a road of trial and error, a bad experience with an affordable website designer, launching my own web design agency, and meeting all kinds of business owners.

Your journey may look a bit different, but I hope I can help you end up at a similar destination: independent mastery over this powerful platform.

Let’s take a look at how we’ll help you get there…

Read More About On-Site Team WordPress Training »

Read More About Individual WordPress Training »

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Website Maintenance Services San Diego

Website Maintenance Services San Diego
Rachel Pfanz, WordPress Maintenance Team Lead

Hi, I’m Rachel Pfanz and I lead the San Diego Website Maintenance team at Emily Journey & Associates.
We provide WordPress website maintenance services and training for thriving businesses all over the United States. As a website consultant and WordPress expert, I am often disappointed in the reputation of my industry. I hear quite a few stories from business owners.
Lots of them.
Mostly from business owners feeling held hostage by their website developer–who fell off the face of the earth.
I’ll go ahead and say it.
Unreliable and unresponsive website developers and agencies are a serious problem in my industry.

Want reliable website maintenance services for your website?
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

The truth about website maintenance services

Too busy for website
This is you.

As the business manager, you don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge base to devote to your own WordPress website maintenance—or maybe you do, but you’d rather spend your resources directly on product development or relationship building or whatever it is that makes your company tick.
In addition to our work in website maintenance in San Diego, we serve as website instructors and advisors. We meet people all the time who decide to take back the reigns of their company website by learning WordPress. All too often, that decision is fueled by negative experiences with website developers.
Too many website maintenance service agencies are thrilled to take your business, but when it comes to fulfilling their promises, they just don’t show up.

  • They don’t listen to you.
  • They don’t get back to you.
  • They don’t know what you need, so they can’t give it to you.

Eventually you come to realize: it’s time to get out of this relationship.

Help with WordPress San diego

Are we any different?

Look at it this way . . . we don’t build websites. We definitely get plenty of referrals for lucrative website development projects but taking on those projects would be a distraction. We prefer to fill our workdays with the special projects and updates requested by our website management clients.
Several years ago, our founder Emily Journey made the decision to shut down the website development part of our company. Instead, we focus on website maintenance services and WordPress training exclusively.
That decision has changed the quality of our work lives dramatically! It means we can be available to our clients for those seemingly small but important updates to their websites.

And, our clients are happy.

Unprofessional, overpriced web developers and designers are the reality for many businesses today. But it doesn’t have to be your reality. Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!

Contact us to receive information about our website maintenance services.

How to tell when your San Diego website maintenance services are NOT adding value

How can you recognize when your website management agency is working for itself—and not for you?

Every situation is unique, but here are five tell-tale signs that your WordPress website maintenance services may not be giving you a fair return on your investment:

1. Failing to communicate

As I’m sure you’ve heard, communication is a two-way street. You want to work with someone who can speak AND listen: someone who not only hears what your website maintenance needs are, but who can translate them into actionable steps and keep you informed about progress.

You should never be left to wonder what your developer or content manager is up to. If she drops off the planet for weeks at a time, you’re wasting valuable time and money trying to keep track of a lost cause.

2. Over-promising and under-delivering

When it comes to website maintenance services, the old adage is true. If it sounds too good to be true…

This can be a hard line to walk, especially if you’re relatively new to working with web content management agencies. You want to work with an ambitious team with big ideas, but you don’t want to be paying month after month for promises that never materialize. Don’t even get me started on so-called SEO services that produce zero results!

To gauge whether your agency’s promises are realistic, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to request examples of past work that point to your agency’s success with similar business needs and KPIs.

3. Not being flexible

Sometimes even successful businesses become stuck in their own processes and old ways of thinking. Always remember that your website maintenance services should work for you. Your website manager should be willing to listen to your needs and adapt as necessary.

Of course, if your ideas will totally tank your SEO or otherwise cause harm to your business, your developer should provide respectful pushback. You can respect that, right? But refusing to consider your scheduling preferences or waiting weeks to push a standard update to your CMS? Big. Red. Flags.

4. Refusing to provide administrator level access

I’ve talked about this all-too-common problem before: it’s unethical for your web developer to restrict your access to your own website. At the beginning of your working relationship, make sure it’s clear that you will register your own domain name and expect top level access to your hosting account and WordPress dashboard.

It’s simple: your site is yours. If your web developer, designer, or content manager won’t give you access, don’t work with them!

5. Just…being…too…slow…

Even though this issue comes last, it may be the most common problem with website maintenance services today. I can’t count the number of times clients have approached me feeling utterly defeated by an unresponsive, almost-comically-slow web developer. The key word, though, is almost—it’s never funny when your website goes offline or your registration form breaks on the last day of sign-ups for your webinar.

If your requests take weeks to get a response, let alone a solution, your website manager is not providing you value.

Are you ready to take back your website?

Even if your webmaster is putting up all of these red flags, it may be tempting to think, “But I’ve already spent so much money on this agency’s website services. I can’t afford to drop them now!” And this makes sense—in fact, it’s so common that there’s a whole field of study around this sunk cost fallacy.

But the truth?

You can’t afford not to.

Consider all the time you spend, wasted, on chasing down your developer or arguing for the right to access your own content. Think about the hours you could spend on value-added activities or on taking a little extra time off . . . ugh.

If your website manager isn’t responsive, reliable, and 100% focused on you, it’s time—fire your website manager! You’re in the driver’s seat.

Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

by on

Website Maintenance Services Columbus, OH

Website Maintenance Services Columbus
Rachel Pfanz, WordPress Maintenance Team Lead

Hi, I’m Rachel Pfanz and I lead the Columbus Website Maintenance team at Emily Journey & Associates.
We provide WordPress website maintenance services and training for thriving businesses in Columbus, OH and all over the United States. As a website consultant and WordPress expert, I am often disappointed in the reputation of my industry. I hear quite a few stories from business owners.
Lots of them.
Mostly from business owners feeling held hostage by their website developer–who fell off the face of the earth.
I’ll go ahead and say it.
Unreliable and unresponsive website developers and agencies are a serious problem in my industry.

Want reliable website maintenance services for your website?
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

The truth about WordPress maintenance services

Too busy for website
This is you.

As the business manager, you don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge base to devote to your own WordPress website maintenance—or maybe you do, but you’d rather spend your resources directly on product development or relationship building or whatever it is that makes your company tick.
In addition to our work in WordPress maintenance in Columbus, we serve as website instructors and advisors. We meet people all the time who decide to take back the reigns of their company website by learning WordPress. All too often, that decision is fueled by negative experiences with website developers.
Too many website maintenance service agencies are thrilled to take your business, but when it comes to fulfilling their promises, they just don’t show up.

  • They don’t listen to you.
  • They don’t get back to you.
  • They don’t know what you need, so they can’t give it to you.

Eventually you come to realize: it’s time to get out of this relationship.

Help with WordPress Columbus

Website Maintenance Services for Columbus, OH small business

Are we any different?
Look at it this way . . . we don’t build websites. We definitely get plenty of referrals for lucrative website development projects but taking on those projects would be a distraction. We prefer to fill our workdays with the special projects and updates requested by our WordPress site management clients.
Several years ago, our founder Emily Journey made the decision to shut down the website development part of our company. Instead, we focus on website maintenance services and WordPress training exclusively.
That decision has changed the quality of our work lives dramatically! It means we can be available to our clients for those seemingly small but important updates to their websites.

And, our clients are happy.

Unprofessional, overpriced web developers and designers are the reality for many businesses today. But it doesn’t have to be your reality. Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!

Contact us to receive information about our WordPress site maintenance services.

How to tell when your WordPress maintenance services are NOT adding value

How can you recognize when your website management agency is working for itself—and not for you?

Every situation is unique, but here are five tell-tale signs that your WordPress website maintenance services may not be giving you a fair return on your investment:

1. Failing to communicate

As I’m sure you’ve heard, communication is a two-way street. You want to work with someone who can speak AND listen: someone who not only hears what your website maintenance needs are, but who can translate them into actionable steps and keep you informed about progress.

You should never be left to wonder what your developer or content manager is up to. If she drops off the planet for weeks at a time, you’re wasting valuable time and money trying to keep track of a lost cause.

2. Over-promising and under-delivering

When it comes to website maintenance services, the old adage is true. If it sounds too good to be true…

This can be a hard line to walk, especially if you’re relatively new to working with web content management agencies. You want to work with an ambitious team with big ideas, but you don’t want to be paying month after month for promises that never materialize. Don’t even get me started on so-called SEO services that produce zero results!

To gauge whether your agency’s promises are realistic, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to request examples of past work that point to your agency’s success with similar business needs and KPIs.

3. Not being flexible

Sometimes even successful businesses become stuck in their own processes and old ways of thinking. Always remember that your website maintenance services should work for you. Your website manager should be willing to listen to your needs and adapt as necessary.

Of course, if your ideas will totally tank your SEO or otherwise cause harm to your business, your developer should provide respectful pushback. You can respect that, right? But refusing to consider your scheduling preferences or waiting weeks to push a standard update to your CMS? Big. Red. Flags.

4. Refusing to provide administrator level access

I’ve talked about this all-too-common problem before: it’s unethical for your web developer to restrict your access to your own website. At the beginning of your working relationship, make sure it’s clear that you will register your own domain name and expect top level access to your hosting account and WordPress dashboard.

It’s simple: your site is yours. If your web developer, designer, or content manager won’t give you access, don’t work with them!

5. Just…being…too…slow…

Even though this issue comes last, it may be the most common problem with website maintenance services today. I can’t count the number of times clients have approached me feeling utterly defeated by an unresponsive, almost-comically-slow web developer. The key word, though, is almost—it’s never funny when your website goes offline or your registration form breaks on the last day of sign-ups for your webinar.

If your requests take weeks to get a response, let alone a solution, your website manager is not providing you value.

Website Maintenance Services Columbus

Even if your webmaster is putting up all of these red flags, it may be tempting to think, “But I’ve already spent so much money on this agency’s website services. I can’t afford to drop them now!” And this makes sense—in fact, it’s so common that there’s a whole field of study around this sunk cost fallacy.

But the truth?

You can’t afford not to.

Consider all the time you spend, wasted, on chasing down your developer or arguing for the right to access your own content. Think about the hours you could spend on value-added activities or on taking a little extra time off . . . ugh.

If your website manager isn’t responsive, reliable, and 100% focused on you, it’s time—fire your website manager! You’re in the driver’s seat.

Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

by on

Website Maintenance Services New York, NY

Website Maintenance Services New York
Rachel Pfanz, WordPress Maintenance Team Lead

Hi, I’m Rachel Pfanz and I lead the New York Website Maintenance team at Emily Journey & Associates.
We provide WordPress website maintenance services and training for thriving businesses in New York and all over the United States. As a website consultant and WordPress expert, I am often disappointed in the reputation of my industry. I hear quite a few stories from business owners.
Lots of them.
Mostly from business owners feeling held hostage by their website developer–who fell off the face of the earth.
I’ll go ahead and say it.
Unreliable and unresponsive website developers and agencies are a serious problem in my industry.

Want reliable website maintenance services for your website?
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

The truth about WordPress maintenance services

Too busy for website
This is you.

As the business manager, you don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge base to devote to your own WordPress website maintenance—or maybe you do, but you’d rather spend your resources directly on product development or relationship building or whatever it is that makes your company tick.
In addition to our work in WordPress maintenance in New York, we serve as website instructors and advisors. We meet people all the time who decide to take back the reigns of their company website by learning WordPress. All too often, that decision is fueled by negative experiences with website developers.
Too many website maintenance service agencies are thrilled to take your business, but when it comes to fulfilling their promises, they just don’t show up.

  • They don’t listen to you.
  • They don’t get back to you.
  • They don’t know what you need, so they can’t give it to you.

Eventually you come to realize: it’s time to get out of this relationship.

Help with WordPress New York

Website Maintenance Services for New York small business

Are we any different?
Look at it this way . . . we don’t build websites. We definitely get plenty of referrals for lucrative website development projects but taking on those projects would be a distraction. We prefer to fill our workdays with the special projects and updates requested by our WordPress site management clients.
Several years ago, our founder Emily Journey made the decision to shut down the website development part of our company. Instead, we focus on website maintenance services and WordPress training exclusively.
That decision has changed the quality of our work lives dramatically! It means we can be available to our clients for those seemingly small but important updates to their websites.

And, our clients are happy.

Unprofessional, overpriced web developers and designers are the reality for many businesses today. But it doesn’t have to be your reality. Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!

Contact us to receive information about our WordPress site maintenance services.

How to tell when your WordPress maintenance services are NOT adding value

How can you recognize when your website management agency is working for itself—and not for you?

Every situation is unique, but here are five tell-tale signs that your WordPress website maintenance services may not be giving you a fair return on your investment:

1. Failing to communicate

As I’m sure you’ve heard, communication is a two-way street. You want to work with someone who can speak AND listen: someone who not only hears what your website maintenance needs are, but who can translate them into actionable steps and keep you informed about progress.

You should never be left to wonder what your developer or content manager is up to. If she drops off the planet for weeks at a time, you’re wasting valuable time and money trying to keep track of a lost cause.

2. Over-promising and under-delivering

When it comes to website maintenance services, the old adage is true. If it sounds too good to be true…

This can be a hard line to walk, especially if you’re relatively new to working with web content management agencies. You want to work with an ambitious team with big ideas, but you don’t want to be paying month after month for promises that never materialize. Don’t even get me started on so-called SEO services that produce zero results!

To gauge whether your agency’s promises are realistic, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to request examples of past work that point to your agency’s success with similar business needs and KPIs.

3. Not being flexible

Sometimes even successful businesses become stuck in their own processes and old ways of thinking. Always remember that your website maintenance services should work for you. Your website manager should be willing to listen to your needs and adapt as necessary.

Of course, if your ideas will totally tank your SEO or otherwise cause harm to your business, your developer should provide respectful pushback. You can respect that, right? But refusing to consider your scheduling preferences or waiting weeks to push a standard update to your CMS? Big. Red. Flags.

4. Refusing to provide administrator level access

I’ve talked about this all-too-common problem before: it’s unethical for your web developer to restrict your access to your own website. At the beginning of your working relationship, make sure it’s clear that you will register your own domain name and expect top level access to your hosting account and WordPress dashboard.

It’s simple: your site is yours. If your web developer, designer, or content manager won’t give you access, don’t work with them!

5. Just…being…too…slow…

Even though this issue comes last, it may be the most common problem with website maintenance services today. I can’t count the number of times clients have approached me feeling utterly defeated by an unresponsive, almost-comically-slow web developer. The key word, though, is almost—it’s never funny when your website goes offline or your registration form breaks on the last day of sign-ups for your webinar.

If your requests take weeks to get a response, let alone a solution, your website manager is not providing you value.

Website Maintenance Services New York

Even if your webmaster is putting up all of these red flags, it may be tempting to think, “But I’ve already spent so much money on this agency’s website services. I can’t afford to drop them now!” And this makes sense—in fact, it’s so common that there’s a whole field of study around this sunk cost fallacy.

But the truth?

You can’t afford not to.

Consider all the time you spend, wasted, on chasing down your developer or arguing for the right to access your own content. Think about the hours you could spend on value-added activities or on taking a little extra time off . . . ugh.

If your website manager isn’t responsive, reliable, and 100% focused on you, it’s time—fire your website manager! You’re in the driver’s seat.

Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

by on

Website Maintenance Services Newark, NJ

Website Maintenance Services Newark
Rachel Pfanz, WordPress Maintenance Team Lead

Hi, I’m Rachel Pfanz and I lead the Newark Website Maintenance team at Emily Journey & Associates.
We provide WordPress website maintenance services and training for thriving businesses in Newark, NJ and all over the United States. As a website consultant and WordPress expert, I am often disappointed in the reputation of my industry. I hear quite a few stories from business owners.
Lots of them.
Mostly from business owners feeling held hostage by their website developer–who fell off the face of the earth.
I’ll go ahead and say it.
Unreliable and unresponsive website developers and agencies are a serious problem in my industry.

Want reliable website maintenance services for your website?
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

The truth about WordPress maintenance services

Too busy for website
This is you.

As the business manager, you don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge base to devote to your own WordPress website maintenance—or maybe you do, but you’d rather spend your resources directly on product development or relationship building or whatever it is that makes your company tick.
In addition to our work in WordPress maintenance in Newark, we serve as website instructors and advisors. We meet people all the time who decide to take back the reigns of their company website by learning WordPress. All too often, that decision is fueled by negative experiences with website developers.
Too many website maintenance service agencies are thrilled to take your business, but when it comes to fulfilling their promises, they just don’t show up.

  • They don’t listen to you.
  • They don’t get back to you.
  • They don’t know what you need, so they can’t give it to you.

Eventually you come to realize: it’s time to get out of this relationship.

Help with WordPress Newark

Website Maintenance Services for Newark, NJ small business

Are we any different?
Look at it this way . . . we don’t build websites. We definitely get plenty of referrals for lucrative website development projects but taking on those projects would be a distraction. We prefer to fill our workdays with the special projects and updates requested by our WordPress site management clients.
Several years ago, our founder Emily Journey made the decision to shut down the website development part of our company. Instead, we focus on website maintenance services and WordPress training exclusively.
That decision has changed the quality of our work lives dramatically! It means we can be available to our clients for those seemingly small but important updates to their websites.

And, our clients are happy.

Unprofessional, overpriced web developers and designers are the reality for many businesses today. But it doesn’t have to be your reality. Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!

Contact us to receive information about our WordPress site maintenance services.

How to tell when your WordPress maintenance services are NOT adding value

How can you recognize when your website management agency is working for itself—and not for you?

Every situation is unique, but here are five tell-tale signs that your WordPress website maintenance services may not be giving you a fair return on your investment:

1. Failing to communicate

As I’m sure you’ve heard, communication is a two-way street. You want to work with someone who can speak AND listen: someone who not only hears what your website maintenance needs are, but who can translate them into actionable steps and keep you informed about progress.

You should never be left to wonder what your developer or content manager is up to. If she drops off the planet for weeks at a time, you’re wasting valuable time and money trying to keep track of a lost cause.

2. Over-promising and under-delivering

When it comes to website maintenance services, the old adage is true. If it sounds too good to be true…

This can be a hard line to walk, especially if you’re relatively new to working with web content management agencies. You want to work with an ambitious team with big ideas, but you don’t want to be paying month after month for promises that never materialize. Don’t even get me started on so-called SEO services that produce zero results!

To gauge whether your agency’s promises are realistic, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to request examples of past work that point to your agency’s success with similar business needs and KPIs.

3. Not being flexible

Sometimes even successful businesses become stuck in their own processes and old ways of thinking. Always remember that your website maintenance services should work for you. Your website manager should be willing to listen to your needs and adapt as necessary.

Of course, if your ideas will totally tank your SEO or otherwise cause harm to your business, your developer should provide respectful pushback. You can respect that, right? But refusing to consider your scheduling preferences or waiting weeks to push a standard update to your CMS? Big. Red. Flags.

4. Refusing to provide administrator level access

I’ve talked about this all-too-common problem before: it’s unethical for your web developer to restrict your access to your own website. At the beginning of your working relationship, make sure it’s clear that you will register your own domain name and expect top level access to your hosting account and WordPress dashboard.

It’s simple: your site is yours. If your web developer, designer, or content manager won’t give you access, don’t work with them!

5. Just…being…too…slow…

Even though this issue comes last, it may be the most common problem with website maintenance services today. I can’t count the number of times clients have approached me feeling utterly defeated by an unresponsive, almost-comically-slow web developer. The key word, though, is almost—it’s never funny when your website goes offline or your registration form breaks on the last day of sign-ups for your webinar.

If your requests take weeks to get a response, let alone a solution, your website manager is not providing you value.

Website Maintenance Services Newark

Even if your webmaster is putting up all of these red flags, it may be tempting to think, “But I’ve already spent so much money on this agency’s website services. I can’t afford to drop them now!” And this makes sense—in fact, it’s so common that there’s a whole field of study around this sunk cost fallacy.

But the truth?

You can’t afford not to.

Consider all the time you spend, wasted, on chasing down your developer or arguing for the right to access your own content. Think about the hours you could spend on value-added activities or on taking a little extra time off . . . ugh.

If your website manager isn’t responsive, reliable, and 100% focused on you, it’s time—fire your website manager! You’re in the driver’s seat.

Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

by on

Website Maintenance Services Los Angeles, CA

Website Maintenance Services Los Angeles
Rachel Pfanz, WordPress Maintenance Team Lead

Hi, I’m Rachel Pfanz and I lead the Los Angeles Website Maintenance team at Emily Journey & Associates.
We provide WordPress website maintenance services and training for thriving businesses in Los Angeles, CA and all over the United States. As a website consultant and WordPress expert, I am often disappointed in the reputation of my industry. I hear quite a few stories from business owners.
Lots of them.
Mostly from business owners feeling held hostage by their website developer–who fell off the face of the earth.
I’ll go ahead and say it.
Unreliable and unresponsive website developers and agencies are a serious problem in my industry.

Want reliable website maintenance services for your website?
Contact Us Testimonials Pricing Packages

The truth about WordPress maintenance services

Too busy for website
This is you.

As the business manager, you don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge base to devote to your own WordPress website maintenance—or maybe you do, but you’d rather spend your resources directly on product development or relationship building or whatever it is that makes your company tick.
In addition to our work in WordPress maintenance in Los Angeles, we serve as website instructors and advisors. We meet people all the time who decide to take back the reigns of their company website by learning WordPress. All too often, that decision is fueled by negative experiences with website developers.
Too many website management service agencies are thrilled to take your business, but when it comes to fulfilling their promises, they just don’t show up.

  • They don’t listen to you.
  • They don’t get back to you.
  • They don’t know what you need, so they can’t give it to you.

Eventually you come to realize: it’s time to get out of this relationship.

Help with WordPress Los Angeles

Website Maintenance Services for Los Angeles, CA small business

Are we any different?
Look at it this way . . . we don’t build websites. We definitely get plenty of referrals for lucrative website development projects but taking on those projects would be a distraction. We prefer to fill our workdays with the special projects and updates requested by our WordPress site management clients.
Several years ago, our founder Emily Journey made the decision to shut down the website development part of our company. Instead, we focus on website maintenance services and WordPress training exclusively.
That decision has changed the quality of our work lives dramatically! It means we can be available to our clients for those seemingly small but important updates to their websites.

And, our clients are happy.

Unprofessional, overpriced web developers and designers are the reality for many businesses today. But it doesn’t have to be your reality. Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!

Contact us to receive information about our WordPress site maintenance services.

How to tell when your WordPress maintenance services are NOT adding value

How can you recognize when your website management agency is working for itself—and not for you?

Every situation is unique, but here are five tell-tale signs that your WordPress website maintenance services may not be giving you a fair return on your investment:

1. Failing to communicate

As I’m sure you’ve heard, communication is a two-way street. You want to work with someone who can speak AND listen: someone who not only hears what your website maintenance needs are, but who can translate them into actionable steps and keep you informed about progress.

You should never be left to wonder what your developer or content manager is up to. If she drops off the planet for weeks at a time, you’re wasting valuable time and money trying to keep track of a lost cause.

2. Over-promising and under-delivering

When it comes to website maintenance services, the old adage is true. If it sounds too good to be true…

This can be a hard line to walk, especially if you’re relatively new to working with web content management agencies. You want to work with an ambitious team with big ideas, but you don’t want to be paying month after month for promises that never materialize. Don’t even get me started on so-called SEO services that produce zero results!

To gauge whether your agency’s promises are realistic, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to request examples of past work that point to your agency’s success with similar business needs and KPIs.

3. Not being flexible

Sometimes even successful businesses become stuck in their own processes and old ways of thinking. Always remember that your website maintenance services should work for you. Your website manager should be willing to listen to your needs and adapt as necessary.

Of course, if your ideas will totally tank your SEO or otherwise cause harm to your business, your developer should provide respectful pushback. You can respect that, right? But refusing to consider your scheduling preferences or waiting weeks to push a standard update to your CMS? Big. Red. Flags.

4. Refusing to provide administrator level access

I’ve talked about this all-too-common problem before: it’s unethical for your web developer to restrict your access to your own website. At the beginning of your working relationship, make sure it’s clear that you will register your own domain name and expect top level access to your hosting account and WordPress dashboard.

It’s simple: your site is yours. If your web developer, designer, or content manager won’t give you access, don’t work with them!

5. Just…being…too…slow…

Even though this issue comes last, it may be the most common problem with website maintenance services today. I can’t count the number of times clients have approached me feeling utterly defeated by an unresponsive, almost-comically-slow web developer. The key word, though, is almost—it’s never funny when your website goes offline or your registration form breaks on the last day of sign-ups for your webinar.

If your requests take weeks to get a response, let alone a solution, your website manager is not providing you value.

Website Maintenance Services Los Angeles

Even if your webmaster is putting up all of these red flags, it may be tempting to think, “But I’ve already spent so much money on this agency’s website services. I can’t afford to drop them now!” And this makes sense—in fact, it’s so common that there’s a whole field of study around this sunk cost fallacy.

But the truth?

You can’t afford not to.

Consider all the time you spend, wasted, on chasing down your developer or arguing for the right to access your own content. Think about the hours you could spend on value-added activities or on taking a little extra time off . . . ugh.

If your website manager isn’t responsive, reliable, and 100% focused on you, it’s time—fire your website manager! You’re in the driver’s seat.

Whatever your company website needs are, let’s talk about them!
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