Team 218 Web Services

08/13/2026

Why Every Business Needs a Website | Web Design & SEO Benefits
https://team218.com/?p=259624
Why Every Business Needs a Website: The Real Benefits
If you’re running a small business or nonprofit in Iowa, especially around our corn-fed corner of Eastern Iowa, here’s a truth you can’t ignore—you need a website. Not just any slapped-together homepage, but a well-built, thoughtfully designed site that reflects your business and works hard behind the scenes.
Let’s break down the real

Why Every Business Needs a Website: The Real Benefits If you’re running a small business or nonprofit in Iowa, especially around our corn-fed corner

08/01/2026

Google Algorithm Updates Iowa
https://team218.com/?p=262964
Google Algorithm Updates: What Iowa Businesses Need to Know
Last reviewed: August 2026.
Google changes its ranking systems thousands of times a year. Most of those changes are invisible. A handful, the confirmed core updates, are large enough to move rankings noticeably, and those are the ones worth understanding.
This page is a running log of the updates that mattered, what actually changed, and

What changed in each Google core update, and what an Iowa small business should actually do about it.

07/30/2026

Why Is My WordPress Site Slow?
https://team218.com/?p=262650
By Kim Hersey, Partner & UX Lead at Team 218
You opened your own website on your phone last week and watched the spinner go. You didn’t time it, but it felt long. Long enough to make you wonder what your customers think when they land on a slow WordPress site.
A slow website isn’t just annoying. It costs you visitors, search rankings, and credibility, often before a single word on the page get

Slow WordPress site? Here's what's actually causing it — and what you can fix yourself vs. what needs a developer.

07/24/2026

Best Website Builders for Nonprofits (2026 Guide)
https://team218.com/?p=262907
Best Website Builders for Nonprofits: An Honest 2026 Comparison
If you run a nonprofit and you are trying to pick the best website builder for nonprofits, you have probably noticed that most “top 10” lists read like they were written by the sales team of whoever paid the most that month. This is not one of those. We build and maintain websites for Iowa nonprofits for a living, and we have inhe

07/20/2026

What Does a GEO Agency Actually Do? A Plain-English Guide for Iowa Businesses
https://team218.com/?p=262886

Yes, there are specialized GEO and SEO agencies in Iowa, and if you’re asking that question, you’ve probably noticed the same thing we have: your customers are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews for recommendations instead of scrolling through ten blue links. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work of making sure your business shows up in those answers.

07/13/2026

Web Design Best Practices | Team 218
https://team218.com/?p=262875
Most business websites in Iowa fail for the same handful of reasons, and none of them are mysterious. The layout buries the point. The navigation makes visitors work. The site takes six seconds to load on a phone in Marshalltown. Good web design is not decoration; it is engineering for human attention. This guide covers the standards we hold every site to: layout, navigation, responsive behavior,

Most business websites in Iowa fail for the same handful of reasons, and none of them are mysterious. The layout buries the point. The navigation makes

07/06/2026

Why most WordPress sites fail within 3 years
https://team218.com/?p=262662



By Chuck Hersey, Owner & Technical Lead at Team 218
A business spends $5,000 building a WordPress site. It launches well. Six months later, it’s still fast and looking good. Nobo

Plugin debt, wrong hosting, no backups, ignored security, built for launch not longevity: the 5 ways WordPress sites fail and how to avoid them.

06/29/2026

WordPress care plans explained
https://team218.com/?p=262659
By Kim Hersey, Partner & UX Lead at Team 218
Shopping for a WordPress care plan feels a lot like buying insurance. You’re comparing things you hope you never need, using terms you’re not sure mean what you think they mean, from companies whose prices range from $15 a month to $300 a month with no obvious explanation for the difference.
I’m going to try to fix that. This is a plain-English br

Shopping for a WordPress care plan? Here's a transparent breakdown of what's included, what's often skipped, and how to compare providers honestly.

06/22/2026

Your WordPress site got hacked. Here's exactly what to do.
https://team218.com/?p=262655
By Chuck Hersey, Owner & Technical Lead at Team 218
Your site is showing a Google warning. Or your host suspended the account. Or a client texted you asking why your website is redirecting to a pharmacy. If your WordPress site was hacked, you’re in the right place.
Finding out is step one. Here’s the rest of it.
How to confirm you’ve actually been hacked
Not every site problem is a hack. But

By Chuck Hersey, Owner & Technical Lead at Team 218 Your site is showing a Google warning. Or your host suspended the account. Or a client texted you

06/19/2026

💙 We're a little overwhelmed (in the best way) after seeing this from our friends at Love from Levi.

Two weeks ago, their story went viral and the orders started pouring in. Over 200 book requests in 14 days, more than they'd shared in the previous three years combined. That's an extraordinary thing to witness, and an extraordinary thing to manage. When you're a small nonprofit running on heart and volunteers, a wave like that can be the moment everything either scales up or grinds to a halt.

So we got to work. We built them a custom ordering system that turns every single request into something the team can actually act on: books ready to be created, a waitlist with thoughtful prioritization, and a clear way to track each family from first request to delivered book. No spreadsheets breaking under pressure, no requests slipping through the cracks. Just a system built to carry the load so the team can stay focused on what they do best.

And it's working. Fifteen books shipped in the last two weeks alone, and counting. 📦

Here's the thing though. We built the tool. Love from Levi does the work that matters, getting books into the hands of families who need them most, often in the hardest moments of their lives. We're honored to be the partner behind the scenes, and we'll keep showing up, solving problems, and building whatever they need next for as long as Levi's mission keeps growing.

Thank you for the kind words, and for letting us be part of something this meaningful. 💙

You can find out more about Love From Levi and their mission on their website: https://lovefromlevi.com/