The importance of a technology strategy
Creating a technology strategy for your small to medium enterprise (SME) is crucial for staying competitive and driving sustained and successful growth.
As we embark on a new year, here are some top tips to help you get started in 2025:
1. Understand Your Business Goals
Align your technology strategy with your overall business objectives. Identifying how technology can support your goals, whether it's improving customer service, increasing operational efficiency or expanding into new markets is a great place to start.
And if taking that first step feels a little daunting, that’s fine and completely understandable. Many SMEs don’t have the in-house experience in IT/Technology, but partnering with a software development company with both strategic and tactical experience in the tech space is an excellent starting point.
2. Assess Your Current Technology
Conduct a thorough assessment of your existing technology infrastructure; a kind of Technology SWOT analysis. Identify what’s working well – your strengths, what could do with some TLC to improve – your weaknesses and where you feel you have gaps in your technology. This will help you understand what needs to be upgraded, replaced, or integrated.
This exercise will provide half of your SWOT data; for internal factors. We’ll look at external factors which represent opportunities and threats as we move through the rest of this article.
3. Define Your Vision and Objectives
Clearly define what you want to achieve with your technology strategy. Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. It’s likely that you’re not going to have the resources or budget to do everything at once, so really think about the sequencing of adopting new technologies, improving cybersecurity or enhancing data analytics capabilities.
Which are the most important and offer the most benefit to your business?
4. Prioritise Initiatives
As we’ve started to cover in point 3 above, not all technology initiatives can be implemented at once. So prioritise your projects based on their potential impact and alignment with your business goals. Focus on quick wins that can deliver immediate benefits and build momentum for larger projects. But also have an eye on medium and longer term projects which deliver improvements and efficiencies to your business over time and will be important for sustained growth.
This again is an area where Go Tripod have bags of experience. We’ve worked with many companies from a wide range of industries and helped them align their tech strategy with business objectives for sustained and successful growth.
5. Budget Wisely
It may sound obvious, but always allocate a realistic budget for the technology initiatives you want to invest in. Consider both initial costs and ongoing maintenance expenses over the lifetime of the tech and look for cost-effective solutions that provide the best return on investment.
Bear in mind that this may not be an off the shelf tech solution. In many cases a bespoke or custom software solution may give you better efficiencies and be more cost effective in the long run. And, at Go Tripod, we love nothing more than a custom software project. We love working with you and your team to fully understand your business processes, in order to build beautiful digital products for you and your customers.
6. Engage Stakeholders
Involve key stakeholders from different departments in the planning process. Include end users, include customers, if appropriate, and include your business leadership team. All of their inputs and buy-ins are crucial for the successful implementation of your technology strategy.
In doing so, you’ll ensure that everyone understands the benefits and is committed to the changes. This’ll make the often tricky to navigate change management element of your projects far more plain sailing.
7. Focus on Cybersecurity
This is a whole subject in its own right and represents one of the main external threats to your business, but cybersecurity should always be a top priority. Every business should implement robust security measures to protect data and systems from cyber threats. Security protocols should be reviewed and updated regularly and you should look to provide training to employees on best practices.
This is another area that often sends shivers up the spines of SME leaders, but again we have wide ranging experience and options available here to protect your systems and data.
8. Leverage Custom Cloud Based Solutions
Cloud based platforms offer scalable and cost-effective solutions for SMEs and often a solution which is customised specifically to your business processes will offer additional efficiencies.
And what an opportunity this presents to your organisation for 2025 and beyond!
Migrating to cloud-based services for data storage, software applications and collaboration tools may even give you an edge over your competitors. This can improve customer experience, as well as enhancing flexibility and reducing technology costs.
9. Invest in Training and Support
Training your teams when new systems are implemented will ensure they are well-equipped to use new technologies. However, this shouldn’t be the end of the training process. Providing regular refresher training and ongoing support will help your teams continue to maximise the benefits of new tools and systems.
And when you collaborate with a software development agency like Go Tripod, that’s all part of the on-going relationship. Whether you have new starters, people who’ve changed their roles or just need regular training updates, we’ll support you.
10. Monitor and Review
As with all business functions, regularly monitoring the progress of your technology initiatives will give you the feedback and data you need to continuously improve. Using key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success will help you identify those areas for improvement and adjust your strategy in order to stay aligned with your business goals.
Wherever you are on your pathway to executing a successful tech strategy, we’d love to work with you. We can create digital products for you, whether it’s a bespoke website, a web-based platform or a mobile app which will help drive your business forward.
We can even go a step further with our 'CTO as a Service' offering and step in and act as your CTO on a part-time or project basis; something which is of great value to SMEs not wishing to go the whole hog with a full time CTO at this point in time.
Please drop us a line if you think we can help you with your 2025 tech strategy or digital transformation projects.
We’d love to work with you and help you unlock your company’s next phase of growth.
To get in touch today simply email hello@gotripod.com, call us on 0845 475 2487 or complete the form below.
Choosing the right custom wordpress web development company: a catalyst for business growth
Every business needs a strong online presence. It’s not an option - it’s essential.
Your website serves as the cornerstone of your digital identity and, for many businesses, WordPress is the platform of choice. With its flexibility, scalability and user-friendly interface, WordPress powers over 40% of the websites globally.
And with the right expertise, a WordPress website can give you a powerful online tool which will fuel your business growth.
But unlocking that potential requires the know-how of a custom WordPress web development company and choosing the right partner is more than a technical decision…
It’s a strategic one.
Not only do you need a supplier who can deliver the website with the look, feel and functionality you require, you need them to have a development team who fit right in with your people and understand your business.
So, in this post we’re outlining in six simple steps how selecting the right custom WordPress web development company can be a catalyst for sustained and successful growth for your business.
- Tailored Solutions for Unique Business Needs
Every business is unique and so are its needs. A custom WordPress web development company will develop solutions that align with your organisation’s specific goals and challenges.
A custom site negates the need for generic templates or clunky plugins and you’ll get a website built to reflect your brand’s personality and meet your unique objectives.
This level of customisation ensures your website offers its visitors an experience that sets you apart from your competitors, whether you’re an e-commerce site, looking to generate leads or require a log in area for technical data access.
2. Enhanced User Experience (UX)
A great website isn’t just about looking good – it needs to be intuitive and functional.
Professional WordPress developers focus on creating seamless navigation, fast-loading pages and mobile-friendly designs that make a real difference to how visitors feel about your site.
A top notch UX keeps visitors engaged, reducing bounce rates and encouraging conversions. The right development company ensures that your website delivers an experience that meets your audience’s expectations while supporting your business goals.
3. Improved Performance and Security
Performance and security are non-negotiable in today’s online landscape. Slow-loading websites frustrate users and drive potential customers away, while weak security measures can expose your site to hacking and data breaches.
A reputable WordPress development company optimises your website for speed and reliability. They also implement robust security measures, such as secure coding practices, SSL certificates, and regular updates, to safeguard your site and build customer trust.
4. Scalability for Future Growth
The chances are you’re looking to grow your business over time, so your website needs to grow with it. A custom WordPress development company will ensure your site is scalable and adaptable. Right at the beginning of any website development project, they should sit down with you and ascertain your overall goals and engage with all the project’s stakeholders in the project discovery phase.
At Go Tripod, we love this phase. It’s a chance to really get to know each other and form the beginnings of a great partnership – even before we’ve written any code!
In the longer term the ability to scale as your organisation grows is invaluable. Whether you’re adding new features, launching an e-commerce store, or expanding into international markets, a properly designed and built custom WordPress website will evolve with your business needs, reducing the need for costly overhauls and redesigns.
5. SEO Optimisation for Visibility
You might think that having a beautiful, functional website is the number one priority, but if nobody can find it, it’s not doing its job for you.
Experienced WordPress developers build SEO-friendly websites from the ground up, incorporating clean code, optimised metadata and mobile-responsive designs that align with search engine algorithms.
They also ensure your site integrates seamlessly with analytics tools, enabling you to track performance and refine your digital marketing strategies over time. With improved visibility, your business will attract more traffic and routinely convert visitors into loyal customers.
6. Dedicated Support and Maintenance
The right development company doesn’t just build your website and leave; it offers ongoing support to ensure your site remains up-to-date and performs at its best.
From troubleshooting issues to implementing new features, dedicated support ensures your website continues to drive growth long after its launch. This proactive approach minimises downtime and keeps your digital presence strong.
This is really important to us here at Go Tripod. We see the building of your website as just the start of a long and fruitful partnership.
In short, investing in the right custom WordPress web development company should be viewed as a partnership and an investment in your business’s future. A carefully selected partner with the right experience and software development skills will provide the expertise, tools and strategies to turn your website into a powerful growth engine.
By tailoring your site to your business objectives, optimising user experiences and ensuring scalability, the right partner helps you stay ahead of the competition and thrive in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
And that’s exactly what we do day in, day out at Go Tripod and we love it!
We’ve built some beautiful custom WordPress sites, with some awesome features to ensure our customers’ customers get the best possible experience. We take the time to get to know you and your business to ensure the launched product elevates your business and drives your desired growth.
We’d love to be part of your custom WordPress development project.
Get in touch today and let’s see how we can custom-build a beautiful website for you that will be impactful and help your business grow…
Simply email hello@gotripod.com, call us on 0845 475 2487 or complete the form below.
Top 10 reasons to consider a custom wordpress website
Your website is your online shop window to the world and often the first point of contact between your business and potential customers. But it’s more than just a digital storefront; it’s a reflection of your brand, your values, and your services.
It’s no secret that there are numerous website builders and templates available, but often they will only be able to deliver a site that doesn’t go much beyond the basics and do the job you really need it to.
In contrast, a custom WordPress website offers a powerful, flexible solution that’s tailored specifically to your business needs.
But is a custom WordPress website really worth it and what advantages does it bring to your business?
In this blog post, we’ll explore why opting for a custom WordPress site can be a game-changer for your organisation, however big or small, and how it offers advantages that pre-made templates or DIY platforms simply cannot match.
Advantage no: 1 – You’ll Get A Unique Website Design Tailored to Your Brand
One of the most compelling reasons to opt for a custom WordPress website is the ability to create a unique design that truly reflects your brand. Pre-built themes are convenient, but often generic and may have been used by countless other websites. So immediately you’ve limited your ability to stand out from the crowd and create a memorable impression.
Compare this to a custom-built WordPress site:
- Your site is designed specifically for your target audience and totally aligned with your brand identity
- You’ll have total control over its look and feel, everything from colours and fonts to the layouts and imagery used
- You know you have a unique design ensuring your business is represented online in the best possible light, making you more recognisable in a crowded online marketplace
Advantage no: 2 – You’ll Have Full Control Over Functionality
A custom WordPress website offers you the flexibility to build the exact features and functionality you need—nothing more, nothing less. Pre-made templates may come with bloated features that slow down your site or lack the capabilities your business really requires. Square peg, round hole syndrome and slow at that!
With a custom WordPress website, you’ll get:
- A fully tailored functionality specific to your business goals, whether it’s a booking or reservation system, a membership site, an e-commerce store, or custom forms to capture data and generate those all-important leads
- The ability to integrate third-party tools and plugins that enhance your site’s functionality without compromising its performance
- Complete control over adding or removing features as your business grows or changes
Advantage no: 3 – Your site will have Improved Performance and Speed
A key advantage of custom WordPress development is that it’s optimised for performance right from the ground up. With templates, you’re often stuck with superfluous code and unnecessary features which do nothing but slow your site down. This unfortunately and inevitably leads to a poor user experience and lower search engine rankings.
By comparison Custom WordPress websites are:
- Optimised for speed, ensuring fast loading times that keep visitors engaged and therefore reduce bounce rates
- Built with clean, efficient code, reducing the likelihood of compatibility issues or slow performance
- Designed with a streamlined backend that ensures smooth operation even as the traffic to your site grows
Advantage no: 4 – SEO can be Fully Optimised for Higher Visibility
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is critical for driving organic traffic to your website. While WordPress is inherently SEO-friendly, a custom WordPress website can take SEO to the next level by implementing advanced strategies tailored to your business and industry.
A custom WordPress site boosts your site’s SEO by:
- Offering optimised site architecture to help search engines crawl and index your content effectively
- Providing customisable SEO settings for each page, allowing you to fine-tune meta descriptions, titles, and keywords to each page’s content
- Promoting faster loading speeds and mobile responsiveness, both of which are key factors for better search engine rankings
- Enabling integration with advanced SEO plugins like Yoast, which give you more control over your optimisation efforts
Advantage no: 5 – As Your Business Grows You Just Simply Scale Up Your Website With It
Most organisations, whatever their current size, will have a growth objective and certainly don’t see themselves as staying static. One of the greatest benefits of using WordPress is its ability to scale up with your business. A custom WordPress website is built to evolve with your changing needs, allowing you to add new features, pages, or integrations as your business expands without requiring a complete redesign.
With a custom site you’ll benefit from:
- Scalable architecture that can handle increased traffic and additional functionality as your business grows
- The flexibility to implement new technologies, such as e-commerce capabilities, CRM integration, or advanced analytics tools when the time’s right for you
- The ability to update and expand your site seamlessly without sacrificing performance or user experience
Advantage no: 6 – You’ll Benefit From Enhanced Security and Top Notch Reliability
Online security is a major concern for businesses today, especially when handling sensitive customer data or managing e-commerce transactions. While WordPress itself is secure, many off-the-shelf themes and plugins run the risk of introducing vulnerabilities.
A custom WordPress website provides:
- Enhanced security measures tailored to your specific site, minimising the risk of hacking or data breaches
- Regular updates and security patches applied to your custom-built components and plugins
- Customisable access controls, ensuring that only authorised users can make changes to your website
- Peace of mind knowing that your site is designed with best practices for security right from the very beginning
Advantage no: 7 – Your Website Visitors will Benefit from A Better User Experience
User Experience (UX) has, quite rightly, become a big consideration when planning and launching a new website. A well-designed website is more than just an aesthetically pleasing series of pages —it should offer a seamless, enjoyable experience for users. A custom WordPress website allows you to design tailored user flows, efficient navigation, and interactions in a way that maximises engagement and conversions.
UX is enhanced with a custom built WordPress site by the following:
- It allows the creation of tailored user journeys which guide visitors through the site and encourage them to take positive actions like signing up for newsletters, purchasing products and services, or contacting your team for further information
- It guarantees mobile responsiveness, ensuring a consistent experience across all devices
- Overall accessibility is improved by designing features that make your site usable for all visitors, including those with disabilities
Advantage no: 8 – You Should Have Easy Access To Ongoing Support and Maintenance
With a custom WordPress site, you’re not just getting a one-time product—you’re building a long-term partnership with your development team. Many custom WordPress developers offer ongoing support, maintenance, and updates to ensure your site continues to perform at its best.
This means:
- Regular updates to core WordPress software, themes, and plugins to prevent compatibility issues
- Continuous performance optimisation to maintain fast loading times as you add new content
- Access to a team of experts who can troubleshoot issues, apply security patches, and provide technical support when needed
Advantage no: 9 – Actually It’s More Cost-Effective for You in the Long Run!
While a custom WordPress website may require a higher upfront investment than a template-based solution, it’s often more cost-effective in the long run. Pre-made themes may require frequent updates, workarounds, or add-ons that increase the total cost of ownership over time. In contrast, a custom solution is built to your exact specifications, reducing the need for ongoing fixes or adjustments.
With a custom site, you can:
- Avoid unnecessary spending on third-party tools or plugins that aren’t essential to your business
- Build a future-proof solution that grows with your needs, minimising the need for costly redesigns
- Ensure that you have a site tailored to your goals, resulting in higher conversion rates and return on investment (ROI)
So, in conclusion, a custom WordPress website gives you the flexibility, scalability, and control needed to build an online presence that truly reflects your brand and meets your business objectives. While template-based sites may seem like a quick fix, they often fall short in terms of delivering the performance, security, and unique user experience that today’s businesses need to thrive.
Whether you’re launching a new product, expanding your services, or simply looking to stand out in a competitive market, a custom WordPress site is a powerful investment that can pay dividends in the form of increased traffic, better user engagement, and improved conversions.
And at GoTripod, we have over 15 years’ experience in doing just that. We’ve built custom sites for individuals and SMEs, right through to global corporations requiring complicated database integrations and secure log in integration.
We know our stuff and can offer you a site which ticks all the boxes. And once your site’s developed, we’re still here to ensure it’s properly hosted and maintained, so you can get on with what’s really important – running your business.
Ready to build a custom WordPress site that sets your business apart from your competition?
Contact us today to discuss how we can create a tailored solution that fits your goals!
Simply email hello@gotripod.com, call us on 0845 475 2487 or complete the form below.
The best Gulp build tool for WordPress
As developers, we have a seemingly endless supply of tools at our disposal thanks to the hard work and generosity of the wider development community who, by and large, share their hard work in the hope of making their peers' lives that little bit easier.
At Go Tripod we're always on the lookout for new ways to streamline our processes and improve the quality of our work. Task runners are a great example of this.
Utilising JavaScript, programs like Gulp and Grunt can automate all kinds of labour-intensive tasks including, for example:
- compiling, concatenating and compressing assets (eg. images, CSS, JS)
- live browser reloading for speedy development and testing
- auto-prefixing for optimal browser support
With these jobs running automatically in the background we're able to focus entirely on the task at hand. This increases productivity and makes sure the code we're writing is as performant and compatible as it can be.
Our current build tool of choice is a modified version of the excellent WPGulp by WordPress aficionado, Ahmad Awais. It does most of the things we need out of the box but since we use Timber to separate logic from styling I've amended it to watch .twig files as well as .php files.
Along with a few other minor adjustments, the result is a fast and feature-packed workflow which allows us to build WordPress sites of the highest quality in record time. ????
Ensuring the security of WordPress websites
We've worked with various content management systems (CMS) over the years but WordPress is our favourite. Thanks to its powerful user interface and open source architecture, it's the most popular CMS on the planet. (In fact its market share is 10 times the size of its closest rival!)
Whilst WordPress empowers millions of users to publish their own content, it also attracts hackers eager to find and exploit vulnerabilities in the WordPress system itself and (more often) in the myriad 3rd party WordPress plugins. As such, security issues are found on a regular basis and plugged just as regularly with frequent updates.
At Go Tripod, we thoroughly test any updates in a staging environment to ensure the new code doesn't cause any problems before it's pushed live to our clients' websites. We maintain the same care and attention throughout our development practice, investing time into researching the best tool for the job at hand.
So, to ensure our WordPress clients don't need to worry about the security of their own websites, we have recently partnered with a dedicated WordPress hosting company.
This means our WordPress clients enjoy:
- daily backups restored with a single click
- automated SSL/TLS certificates via Let's Encrypt
- unlimited development/staging environments
- rapid environment updates via Git
- a built-in one-click CDN
Do you have a WordPress site? Is it secure? Get in touch if you'd like to know more about what we can offer.
How to enqueue and defer scripts in WordPress
In a previous article I talked about adding the defer attribute to script tags to avoid blocking page render. However, if you’re developing a WordPress theme, chances are you won’t simply be able to amend this HTML. Instead you'll need to make use of the wp_enqueue_script function from within your theme's functions.php file. This function allows you to tell WordPress if your script has any dependancies, which you pass through as an array, and WordPress uses this information to load scripts in the correct order thus avoiding any JavaScript errors. Because plugins load assets via the wp_enqueue_scripts hook it's important you do too so your theme plays nice with them.
So we've got our scripts loading in the correct order - great! But unfortunately WordPress doesn't load them asynchronously for you meaning your HTML will pause parsing while the script is downloaded and executed. Sounds pretty bad for performance, and it is, so we'll be needing an extra something in our functions.php file. While this isn't a perfect solution it's the most solid I've found so far and is what we currently implement here at Go Tripod:
// Defer scripts
// Source: https://www.laplacef.com/2014/05/24/how-to-defer-parsing-javascript-in-wordpress/
if (!(is_admin())) {
function defer_js($url) {
if (FALSE === strpos($url, '.js')) return $url;
if (strpos($url, 'jquery.js')) return $url;
return "$url' defer onload='";
}
add_filter('clean_url', 'defer_js', 11, 1);
}Your scripts' src attribute will be replaced with itself along with defer and empty onload attributes resulting in them being loaded asynchronously and giving your site a dramatic performance boost.
Dynamically generating responsive images with Timber's resize filter and the srcset attribute
Timber has loads of useful filters built in which can make all kinds of jobs much easier. One of those jobs is resizing and cropping images, for which we can use the resize filter. The syntax is simple, as with all things Twig - we simply add the filter to our image source, passing through a width or height to resize or both to crop.
The following example will resize the image to a width of 300px while retaining its aspect ratio:
{{ item.src|resize(300) }}The following example will resize the image to a height of 300px while retaining its aspect ratio:
{{ item.src|resize(0, 300) }}The following example will crop the image to a width and height of 300px:
{{ item.src|resize(300, 300) }}We can then define multiple sizes and pass these into a srcset attribute to make sure we’re serving a suitable image size based on the device viewport. This is especially important for mobile devices who don’t need to download and display a full HD hero image on a 320px wide screen.
The following example defines three sizes, one for mobile, tablet and desktop - devices with a viewport width of up to 480px will get the 480px wide image and so on.
srcset="{{ item.src|resize(480) }} 480w, {{ item.src|resize(1280) }}
1280w, {{ item.src|resize(1920) }} 1920w"If you’re new to srcset or want to delve into it a bit deeper, CSS Tricks’ article is a good read.
Making use of the defer attribute to easily eliminate render blocking scripts
When working on improving the response time of your site, one of the simplest optimisations to make is the deferring of scripts. In most cases, this can be done with the simple addition of the defer attribute to the script tags within your HTML:
<script src="" defer></script>When a browser gets to a script tag in your code, its default behaviour is to pause parsing of the HTML, opting to download and execute the script before resuming. Setting the defer attribute tells the browser not to pause, but instead download the script in the background and execute it once parsing of the HTML has completed.
Another feature of using defer, which can be very useful, is that all scripts with the defer attribute will execute in the order they’re presented in your HTML. This is especially useful when writing scripts which rely on others as you can ensure these dependencies are executed first.
Scripts can also be executed asynchronously using the async attribute but bear in mind that it should only be used if the script is not relied upon or does not rely on any others and will function correctly if run before HTML has finished parsing. For a clear visual representation of the different script loading options, this article has some simple infographics I’d recommend taking a look at.
If you’re developing WordPress themes without the use of a template engine like Timber, you may not be able to edit this HTML and should instead make use of the wp_enqueue_script function within your theme’s functions.php file - you should also use this method if using any WordPress plugins which run scripts on your site’s front end.