west hs wordpress presentation 2016-11-04
TRANSCRIPT
An Introduction to WordPress for Prospective Entrepreneurs &
Startups
West High School 4 Nov 2016
By M. Jon Brownwww.journeymacedonia.com
Create Business Plan◦ Your identity (business name, trademark, logo, etc.)◦ What you’re offering◦ Your target◦ Marketing strategies
Perform Reality & Viability Check (profit margins)
Secure Financing Support of Friends & Family Register Domain Name & Obtain Web Host
Steps Prior to Internet Launch
Is free and easy to learn and use. It’s not just for blogging, is very flexible and
can be used for small to large websites An enormous support community
◦ Blogs - http://www.wpbeginner.com/ https://wordpress.org/support/
◦ Word Camps - https://central.wordcamp.org/ Over 4,000 Themes and over 45,000 plug-
ins are available for free.
Why WordPress
Powerful and easy to use Content Management System (CMS)
Very customizable and scalable (ramp-up ability)
Whether you are only advertising services on Craig’s List (dog walker, baby sitting) and need a landing page for potential clients to get more info on you and your services, or you want to open a store to sell products and take credit cards – WordPress can meet your needs
Why WordPress
Three Most Popular Site Building Platforms in 2016
Source: http://websitesetup.org/
Theme – The graphical interface that controls the presentation (design) of your website/
Posts –news & information (content) you use to engage the audience. Posts are dynamic and can be shared via RSS feeds & social media◦ Can be tagged and grouped into Categories◦ Users can leave comments
Page - For static content such as “About Us”, “Contact Us” “Privacy Policy” and etc.
WordPress Basics
Categories – Used for sorting and grouping content (posts).
Keywords – These are what search engines use to identify your website, what it is about and plays into how your page is ranked.
Tags – are internal to your website and allow for grouping of and finding related material on your site.
Plugins – Adds to or controls features on your website
WordPress Basics
Example Site DiagramPetServicesIC.com
DogsCats Goldfish & Reptiles
Dog Groomin
gDog
Exercises
Categories(Static)
Home Page/Index
Sub-categories(Static)
Dog Walkin
gSwimmin
gFrisbeeCatchin
gPosts(Dynamic Content)
About Us
Page(Static)
After installing WordPress on your web domain, before you can add any content – You will need to choose a theme.
Before choosing a theme, it’s a great idea to have site plan depicting how you want your site displayed and the key features & plugins you need on your site.
Browse other websites offering similar products or services.◦ What are their +s and –s?◦ What can you do to stand out?
Choosing a Theme
Free WordPress themes are available at https://wordpress.org/themes/
Read the ratings and reviews The number of “Active Installs” can be a
great indicator of reliability, support (especially continued support) and plugins availability.
Preview the Demo and look for documentation (done well?) and support options
Choosing a Theme
Theme must be “Responsive”, seamless across all platforms – mobile, tablet, PC
Make sure the theme is optimized for SEO with headers, alt tags and etc.
Website speed. Does it load fast? Themes with lots of extras you won’t use can
slow down your site If a free theme has a premium version that you
like, test out the free version before paying for the upgrade.
Choosing a Theme
Keep it simple – Don’t clutter, Less = More Make your site easy to navigate and content
easily accessible Don’t make forms difficult Use fonts that make for easy reading Use quality images to enhance visual
appeal or for branding It is all about the UX (User Experience). Put yourself in the shoes of the user. Is your site intuitive & easy to use?
Website Design Tips
Beware of installing too many plugins on your website. Plugins need to be updated and the more plugins you have installed, the greater the security risk to your site.
Plugin Directory - https://wordpress.org/plugins/
As with choosing Themes – read the reviews, check the ratings, number of active installs, & current compatibility
with WordPress
Choosing Plugins
Akismet◦ Protects your site’s comments and contact forms
from getting “spammed”. Free for bloggers. Contact Form 7
◦ A free plugin that allows you to manage multiple contact forms
Dave's WordPress Live Search◦ Adds "live search" functionality to your WordPress
site Email Address Encoder
◦ A free and lightweight plugin that protects email addresses from email-harvesting robots by encoding them into decimal and hexadecimal entities.
Useful Plugins
iThemes Security ◦ A great security plugin that is free. ◦ Note: Do not install too many security plugins are your site.
There is a potential for conflict that could result in the plugins not working and leaving your defenseless
Jetpack◦ A free plugin that gives you a centralized dashboard to
manage plugins, and tools on visitor stats, security services, speeding up images, and ways to get more traffic
Mailchimp ◦ Allows you to add subcsribers to your site
NextGen Gallery◦ A great free plugin for displaying pictures and galleries
on your site
Useful Plugins
WooCommerce◦ a free eCommerce plugin to establish your online
store. Does offer premium services. WordPress PopUp
◦ Allows you to create PopUps, targeted marketing campaigns, keep customers from leaving your site, and build your mailing list
Yoast SEO◦ Hands down, the best onsite SEO plugin. ◦ Free version is extremely useful.
Useful Plugins
Onsite SEO: ◦ Optimizing your website’s content,
structure, titles, descriptions and keywords to make your website search engine friendly.A great onsite SEO Tool: https://yoast.com/
Offsite SEO: ◦ Inbound links from External websites◦ A great offsite SEO Tool
https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner (offsite)
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Social Networking Sites: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and etc.
Efficient Indexing: Google XML Sitemap
Link Exchange - Exchange links with service-related websites
Submitting Content to other sites: Write a guest post for another blog or leave a comment.
Participate in discussion/message boards.
YouTube - Create your own YouTube channel and share videos and reviews of your business
Classifieds - Advertise your products and/or services on sites such as Craigslist
Other Offsite SEO Ideas
After installing WordPress, you will have a default username of “Admin”. ◦ Hackers are aware of this and they can attempt a brute-
force attack as now they only need to find your password to gain entry.
◦ You will want to change this username (create another user) to make it more difficult for hackers. Research how.
◦ Also, check with your web host to ensure they minimize login attempts and if they don’t, install a plug in that will limit the number of login attempts.
Other Useful Tips
Get a SSL Certificate – it authenticates the identity of your site and provides an encrypted connection between your web server and your visitors' web browser
Use RSS feeds – update your content, so that people can read it in their mailboxes, feed reader and/or other devices.
Create an e-mail newsletter list (subscribers) and regularly (not too frequent) send out updates and useful information.
Other Useful Tips
Google Analytics◦ Tracks and reports traffic on your website◦ A wealth of statistical and demographical info
regarding visitors to your site◦ https://analytics.google.com/
Google Search Console◦ You can check the indexing the status of your
website and optimize visibility. Check for 404 errors and broken links.
◦ https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
Other Useful Tips
Create a Contact Form◦ Allow users to contact you directly or anonymously
Always Update◦ For security purposes – ensure that your WordPress
installation, themes and Plugins are always updated. Look for the red dots on your dashboard.
Regularly Backup◦ Under your web hosting plan, know the
capabilities, limits and prices to backup and restore your website.
Other Useful Tips
It's not just for blogging
It’s open source software that is free to use with free themes and plugins available
You don‘t need to be a developer or know how to write code to use it effectively.
WordPress
Any Questions?