How we create • together at interGen
From social media to measuring performance to simply managing your website, there are a lot of details to cover. InterGen operates on the idea that your website, your social media, and your data are yours. Our job is to make sure that you are getting the most out of your digital resources in the easiest, most convenient way possible. Helping people, businesses, organizations, and communities move forward together is an exciting endeavor that fuels us. Beyond just programming your website, our passion can move your business forward.
Here's what we're passionate about right now...
- Written by Brian Mitchell
This article is part of a two-part series written as an encouragement for the upcoming discussion about the very bright future of the Joomla project. Be sure to check out part 1 first!
Much of what I share below is born of many conversations with passionate Joomlers. I tend to remember great ideas well and often forget from where they came. If you hear your ideas or voice below, thank you for sharing your creativity and part of your Joomla story with me.
- Written by Brian Mitchell
This article is part of a two-part series written as an encouragement for the upcoming discussion about the very bright future of the Joomla project. InterGen cares deeply, as Joomla has been our development platform of choice since the company was founded in 2006. In addition to running InterGen, in 2013 I began actively volunteering for the Joomla project—first as a team member, then as a team lead. I served on the Open Source Matters Board of Directors as Treasurer and later President from 2019–2021, overseeing all legal and financial concerns of the project. I am currently greatly enjoying mentoring for the inaugural session of the Joomla Academy.
- Written by Brian Mitchell
How coding has taught me about the importance of focus
Working with code has taught me a surprising amount about running a business, especially when it comes to building systems that actually hold up over time.
Sometimes code gets built in different ways.
There is a UNIX programming philosophy that says a script should do one thing and do it well. If you need more sophisticated functionality you connect scripts together to achieve the entire goal. This keeps code modular and easier to maintain.
Joomla, for example, follows this philosophy beautifully. Its modular structure makes it easy to add just what you need—and just as easy to leave out what you don’t. That’s a big reason we love it so much: it scales with you, without unnecessary clutter.
- Written by Brian Mitchell
Ever wondered how to handle those generic but crucial email addresses like This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.? You're not alone. Setting up these "functional" email accounts in Google Workspace can be confusing, but getting it right is key to a smooth workflow and happy team.
At intergen, we believe in a simple philosophy: every team member who needs to interact with email gets their own named account, like This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. This ensures individual accountability and a professional appearance. For those functional addresses, the best choice boils down to a simple question: Is one person or a team responsible for the emails coming in?
Let's break down your options in the simplest terms possible.
Read more: Untangling Your Inbox: Groups vs. Aliases vs. Accounts for Functional Emails
- Written by Brian Mitchell
For years we have been telling clients that search engine optimization (SEO) it's not the "dark arts." It is too often treated as magical pixie dust that you sprinkle on a website after it launches. It is a subject wrapped in jargon and mystery that helps the "experts" sound more "expert."
In truth, SEO is about creating great content that is relevant to your organization and its target market. The content answers real questions, solves real problems, and real human beings want to read it. In addition, an organization can encourage others to link to that content on their website. At the end of the day, that's it.
There are a collection of tools and best practices to make sure that the content on your website is set up to be as easy as possible for search engines to find and index. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console are really more about providing visibility into what's happening with the content and health on your website rather than actually generating traffic.
A good number of interGen clients are interested in taking things a few steps further.
For these clients we employ a tool called AHREFS. The company is named for the HTML code used to create hyperlinks (e.g. <a href="https://intergen.org" target="_blank">My link to a great web developer</a>). Among many other things, they provide tools that show the "health" of a website, assessing things like how many dead links you have (404's), backlinks, page speed, etc. Pages with errors won't rank at Google.
That is why cleaning up site health issues is often the first step in getting serious about using SEO to drive traffic to your site. If you are interested in deploying these tools to your site, let us know.
