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Author: Jennifer Folsom

Jennifer Folsom is experienced in conceptualizing, designing, and developing engaging websites with WordPress and WooCommerce. She has a strong focus on user-centered design principles.Specialty areas include:Website Accessibility, Optimization for Search Engines, & Newsletter Management. Jennifer has been a Girls Who Code facilitator since 2017, has attended WordCamp US annually since 2018, and has been an annual guest speaker for The Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville since 2021.

Is Your Website Due for a Refresh? Here’s How to Tell

We understand that your website is more than just a digital presence; it’s a reflection of your brand, values, and offerings to the world. Over time, even the most well-crafted websites can benefit from a bit of polish and modernization. Is Your Website Due for a Refresh? As your trusted web design partner, we’re here to review your website and advise on updates, recommended for sites 3 to 4 years old.

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Bear Web Labs: Mastering More Than Content Management

Bear Web Labs is your hub for comprehensive web training tailored to help you. We aim to equip entrepreneurs and businesses with the skills to master content management, social media, and SEO strategies. We use the industry-leading platform – WordPress.

Under the guidance of our dedicated professionals, including Jennifer Folsom, an accomplished Web Designer/Developer, and Sabrina Jewell, an esteemed Marketing Specialist, our training programs delve into the intricacies of WordPress, WooCommerce, and essential aspects of social media and SEO.

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Unlocking the Potential: Reasons to Redesign Your Website

Your website is more than just static marketing; it’s a dynamic tool that can propel your business forward, or hold it back. If you’re considering a website redesign, here are signs that your current site may be due for a makeover.

Outdated Design and Functionality

Digital trends and expectations seem to evolve overnight. If your website looks outdated or lacks modern functionality, it might be turning away prospects. A contemporary design improves user experience and positively reflects on your brand.

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Bear Web Teams Up with Girls Who Code

Believe it or not, I can’t wait to spend the rest of the summer coding with high school students I haven’t yet met!

Over the last two weeks, I helped high school juniors and seniors code websites advocating topics they care about passionately. I facilitated a sisterhood of young women lifting each other in praise and graduating from the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program (GWC SIP) with new skills, newfound friendships, and innovative perspectives on their futures. And over the next 6 weeks, I will see another 60 students, from all over the world, take risks, be brave, and discover how great Computer Science can be.

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WordPress Gutenberg & The Classic Editor

The new block editor, also known as Gutenberg, stands to change the way you create and update content on your WordPress site.

It’s likely you have experienced the classic WordPress editor. You might use it to post a blog, for instance. It’s also likely that you had to look up how to complete complex tasks like style changes, adding buttons or changing the background color. (You may have also asked your friendly agency for assistance.)

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Web Accessibility

We all visit websites for similar reasons regardless of the technology we use to interact with it. A person who is visually impaired will use a bank’s website to pay a bill with the same intent as someone who doesn’t use assistive technology. A person using their mobile device requires the same functionality of someone using their desktop. Just as a good site design will have considered the requirements of different screens, good site design needs to consider a variety of users’ needs and accessibility issues. This is called Web Accessibility.

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Need Help with WordPress?

Have you heard about WordPress? You may be considering it for your new website. You may need a website; you know how important it is, you just “don’t have the time”.

What is WordPress and how can it help you?

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Welcome To Code Club for Girls!

Over the last few months I have been working with the Watertown Wilson County Public Library to launch an after school coding club called “Watertown Impact”. Every Wednesday, 7 young women, 6th through 12th grade, spend their afternoons learning to code.

The students come from different backgrounds, and utilize their different learning styles and problem solving skills to create something entirely new. They are quickly realizing that enthusiasm, hard work, curiosity and risk taking are essential to learning standard web languages as well as structural and presentational aspects of web design. And they’re usually laughing the whole time. They are becoming digital creatives, and it is wonderful to witness their originality and curiosity.

Already, they are putting their burgeoning coding skills to work for Wilson County by creating a website to promote the use and maintenance of the county’s new Little Free Libraries, a project organized by United Way of Wilson County to promote reading, strengthen community and inspire creativity. The site will feature pictures of the new Little Free Libraries, a map of library locations, and information on use, donations and the sponsors of the libraries.

This project requires peer-to-peer in addition to student-to-mentor relationships that extend beyond the local and into the world-wide coding community. Students will have the opportunity to publish their code in online repositories and receive input from others in the industry from around the world. They will visit local agencies, too, for some hands-on experiences of the local programming scene. Connections between industry and students opens possibilities and opportunities for kids and their futures and that’s something we’re very proud to facilitate.

Be sure to read the bios of these fledgling coders, once their new site is live. Their enthusiasm for learning, experimenting and having fun is contagious. They know that anything is possible.