Have you ever visited a homepage and wondered which components the creator has used? When I started remaking my homepage back in 2021, it wasn't the first time that I went through the process. This time I looked at different homepages to get ideas for my homepage. I was well aware that I am old-school when it comes to homepage design. I don't like homepages that only consist of one long page. Every time you click on a link, the page jumps up or down. And when you scroll up or down, you discover that you have already been there. That makes it difficult for me to get a good overview of the content. Then there are homepages where you only see a big picture and a title, and it takes several clicks to find out what the purpose of the homepage is. And yes, if it's a photographer's homepage, it is a great way to present pictures.
To get back on topic, I was several times annoyed because I couldn't find information about which components the creators used on their homepages. As a musician, I'm used to others asking me about the equipment that I use - which mouthpiece, what kind of barrel, which reed, and so on. As an inspiration to others, here is a list of components that I use on my homepage. Feel free to contact me if you want to know more.
What I needed | What I chose | Comment |
---|---|---|
Webhosting providers | Simply.com | Excellent support, 1-click installation of Wordpress |
CMS | WordPress | Flexible, many online ressources - it's easy to find help online |
Graphics | Pixabay.com | Most pictures I mine, but those who aren't, I've found here |
Wordpress Theme | Twenty Twelve | It was a simple theme that I liked |
Theme editing | CSS Hero | Easy to edit elements of theme and I don't have to mess around with CSS code. You have to pay for it, but it's cheap. |
Add code snippets in php-files | Code snippets | Makes it easy to manage which code snippets you have added to Wordpress |
Remove the 'website' field from the comments form | Comment Link Remove | Makes it easy to remove the 'website' field from the comments form |
Cookie notification | Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR/CCPA | Makes it very easy to add a cookie notification on your homepage |
Send email from Wordpress | Easy WP SMTP | Makes it possible to receive notifications when comments are added to the website |
Make sure that it's not robots that fills out the forms on the website | hCaptcha for Forms and More | Alternative to Google's reCaptcha |
Adding CSS code if it can't be done through CSS Hero | Simple Custom CSS | The CSS code is retained even if you change the theme |
Another language | TranslatePress – Multilingual | Translation is a manual process. It can also be used to change text in the theme. My comments were originally called 'replies' in the theme |
Contact form | WPForms Lite | Easy to create a contact form. There's a lot of possibilities and if you upgrade to a paid version, there's even more. |