WordPress for Business Owners

WordPress
Not Just For Blogs Anymore:
Build Better Business Websites - Slides
By Nick Armstrong -- IAmNickArmstrong.com -- @ImNickArmstrong

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Hi - I’m Nick!
2 web design awards in state-wide events
4 years of WordPress experience
13 years web design experience (I’m 25)

Ask Questions
Email: Nick@IAmNickArmstrong.com
Twitter: @ImNickArmstrong
Website: IAmNickArmstrong.com


What We’ll Cover
1. WordPress 101: Blogs, Business, + Beyond
a. About WordPress
b. Installation
c. The Dashboard and Controls

ickg
d. Blog or Website (or both!)

m N arnin
2. Look and Feel

Frrovital toailleing a f.ew
a. Themes

ote e
b. Widgets
c. Menus
d. PHP, CSS, and XHTML A N nd error OK with of do it live
a
e. Tools to Design la e tt
Tria Press. B try no re y
ou
3. Managing Content d t efo
Wor mes, bu er b !
a. The Two Types of Content ti erv
b. Publishing Method te st s tomers
u se a ur cus
c. Images and other media ays ow yo
4. Managing Users Alw sh
a. Handling User Accounts
b. Managing Updates
c. Comments and Links
5. Connecting to the World
a. Plugins
b. 3rd Party Tools


Spot a WordPress Site


How it all works...
Your domain is like your Street Address. It describes
a place to go.
Your hosting is like your House. It’s a place for
things to be put.
WordPress is the shelves/walls/tables/etc, a place to
put stuff on.
The theme is the paint on the walls, decor, etc.
Your content is the stuff on the shelves/walls, etc.


.ORG vs .COM
.Org

Self-hosted (you buy hosting)

Self-promoted (no built-in community)

Highly customizable (custom themes, custom plugins)

.Com

WordPress.com-hosted (you can pay for add-ons)

Community-driven (built-in community)

Not so customizable (no custom themes -- only custom css, no
custom plugins)


WordPress: SEO Secret Sauce

Pretty URLs
Pretty Code (XHTML Valid)
Content Structure
Plugins


WordPress: Simple CPanel Install

*Assuming your domain is already pointed, to get to CPanel just visit
http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel in your browser. Your webhost may not use cpanel.


WordPress: Simple CPanel Install

Install in a sub-domain
Install in a folder or in the root

Admin Username - Don’t Use Admin.
Really.


WordPress Basics

The Dashboard

Hub of all action

Reached by
going to
yourdomain.com
/wp-admin/


The Wordpress Menu
Add new blog post

Add new static page
Google Analytics
Plugin update available

Drafts

Recent Comments


Basic Settings Use this option to change whether
the blog is the home page or if a
static page is the home page.

Blog Title, Tagline,
WordPress address, and
Blog address all affect
SEO. Settings -> General How many blog posts appear
Settings on the blog page before the
archive starts.

Static pages and archive
width.

Settings -> Reading
Settings


Wait, No Blog?
Remove the blog entirely or just move the blog to
somewhere besides the front page.
Here are the steps:
1 - Create two pages. One called “Home” and one called “Blog” (or
whatever you want them to be named).

2 - Go into Settings -> Reading and set “Home” as the Front Page. Set
“Blog” as the Posts Page.

3 - ALWAYS leave the *Page* called “Blog” blank. It’s just a container
now - not where you write posts. (You still write posts under the “New
Post” menu option).


Blog Terminology
Blog vs blog post - Be very careful. Your “Blog” is your website. A
“blog” or “blog post” is an individual article on that website.

Tag - Key words or phrases associated with this particular post. Pick
3-5.

Category - Think of these as folders to organize the types of posts you
often write about. For example, if you’re a vet, and you wrote about
dogs, you’d put the post into the Dogs category (as opposed to the Cats or
Birds category). A post can belong to more than one category.

Trackback/Pingback - A link to your Blog from another site, which
creates a reciprocal link in the comments section. You can delete these
like comments (if, for example, the trackback was spam).


Look and Feel


Let’s Check Out Some
Themes and Customize
Them


You probably don’t want to
hear this, but...

The -best- way to make sure your site
looks and feels like your brand is to
have a custom theme designed for you.
For moderately complex designs, expect
to spend between $2,500 to $10,000
(depending on your local economy)


Silly question, but...
How do I get rid of all that junk in the
sidebar?
Click here or here


Widgets
Widgets directly relate to...

This is where all that
“extra junk” in your
theme comes from. ...what your visitors see.

...Widget Be Gone
1
Click here
2

3 After

Before

...Widget Come Back
To add a widget to
the sidebar, just
click and drag it to
the sidebar until a
dashed box appears,
then drop it there.
You can rearrange
widgets the same
way.

Managing Content


Posts vs Pages
Posts are dynamic content that are frequently updated
by you.

Pages are for static content that doesn’t change very
often.

Think “Today’s News” (post) vs “About Us” (page)

A blog page (created automatically for you, unless you
customize) is a special kind of page that shows posts.
Newer posts stack on top and push older posts down (into
the archive).


Add a New Post
On the WordPress Menu, click on
“Add New” under the Posts menu.

Note that this is a collapsable/
expandable menu.
Collapse the menu
Edit brings up a list of existing posts
and drafts.

Post Tags shows you all the “tags”
you’ve used.

Categories shows you all the
“categories” you’ve used and allows
you to edit them.


Minimal Outlines

WordPress recently minimized what they show on each page.
Here’s how to fix it.


What you see is what you
get view vs HTML view
Title
Add a picture

Publish or Update (save)
Post body - write your content here.
300-500 words is the usual guideline,
but write for your audience. Select or create
appropriate categories

Excerpts are helpful descriptors of the blog post - I use the
single paragraph that best exemplifies the post.

Don’t worry about this.
Don’t worry about this.

Enable/Disable comments and trackbacks Add 3-5
keywords or
phrases


More Post Options
Save without making public Preview without publishing
You can create
Category hierarchies.
For example, if you
Draft/Review/Published
talk about Dogs, you
can create a Dogs
parent category, and
Large Breed and
Small Breed child Public - visible to anyone
categories under Dogs. Password - public, with password
Private - must be logged in

Publish now vs future

Add as Parent or child of ... Publish or Update (save)

Adding/Editing Images
Rotate/center
Scale = resize

Title and Alt text can be the same
Crop = cut

Add a link here

Aligns with text

New Link Options

You can easily link to
internal content now (via a
search box or recent posts list)


Pages
Exactly the same as posts, but:
No Tags
No Categories
No Excerpt
Pages can be children of other pages
Pages can have templates (advanced)


Same as posts
Title

Publish or Update (save)
Page body text
Select a parent for this page

Enable/disable comments and trackbacks

Don’t worry about these
Order for menu
purposes
Don’t worry about these


Page and Post Management
Edit page New page
content
Preview page
Delete page
Edit tags, category, title - not content


Blogging Best Practices
SEO isn’t magic.

SEO (search engine optimization) happens when you put your ducks in
a row.

Focused posts, with well-chosen, appropriate keywords, a well-chosen,
keyworded title, and a well-chosen category go a long way to improving
your rankings.

Plan - then write!

Your blog should have a definite niche.

Our Vet example continued - know what topics you’re likely to be
blogging about and create categories and structure beforehand.

It’s okay if this structure changes over time (it will!)


Content Map

Categories -> Longest Lasting Themes
Sub-Categories -> Smaller Themes
Tags -> Keywords, Minor Themes
Pages -> Static?
Authors -> Oh boy. “Blog Groupies”


Customizing Menus

Important!


Customizing Menus

1

2
3


Customizing Menus
Add a link to
a page outside
your site

3
Link text Mouseover text

1
Remove this link
2
Add a link to
a category listing
from your blog


Customizing Menus

Finally, select your
new menu from the
drop-down box and
click “save”


Managing Users


Users, Subscribers, Etc.
Username is the default “display
name” - you can change this to the
First Name, Last Name, Nickname
or combination.

Certain themes link your website/bio
info.

Roles:
- Subscriber - can access “Private”
areas.
- Contributor - can write posts but not
publish them.
- Author - can write posts AND
publish them.
- Editor - can edit others posts.
- Administrator - can edit site.


Best Practices for Users
Do not give a user more permission than they
need.
The fewer admin accounts, the better.
STRONG PASSWORDS.
- 1 letter
- 1 number
- no whole words
- 1 symbol


Comment Moderation?
“Lefties” say: Let everyone comment.

“Righties” say: Hell no. Sign up first.

Users say: Why the hell are you making
me jump through hoops?


The “Best” Answer:
Disqus (no site-specific login)
Akismet (strong spam filtering)
Common Sense
Apologize (Actually, say “Sorry”)


Connecting to the
World


Pretty URLs
This prevents your listing in search engines before you’re ready.

These settings control your
“pretty” URLs - and improve
SEO on everything but
Numeric and Default.

If you have a lot of pages and posts, starting with a number (like year) is vital.


Plugins
Add
Update
Click here

Search here
Click here

Then... (next Then here
slide)


You’ve Got Plugins

Rating Click to install
Mouse-over to see
number of ratings.

Last Update

Compatibility


How To Pick a Great Plugin

Highest Stars/Most Ratings
Best Features
Up To Date (Works with your version of
WordPress - or at least the “family”. For
example, 2.8.x is a family, 2.7.x is a
family...)


Plug-Ins (Part One)
Feedburner - Feedburner.com

Track your RSS stats

Free account and Plugin required

Google Analytics

Track your Site stats

Free account required, Plugin is useful

Google XML Sitemaps

Creates an XML Sitemap of your website

Notifies Google, Ask, Bing, and Yahoo when you update


Plug-Ins (Part Two)
Disqus (Official)

Users log-in and comment to your site w/ a social media profile

Easy comment moderation

All-In-One SEO or Platinum SEO

Keywords and Metatags for individual pages, posts, etc.

Highly customizable

Sociable // TweetThis // whatever

Adds social media icons to your site for easy sharing


Plug-Ins (Part Three)
Widget Logic

Allows you to customize exactly which pages a widget appears on

ExecPHP

Allows you to put PHP code into your pages and posts

PHPCode Widget

Allows you to execute PHP code in your widget areas

Login Lockdown

Prevents most break-in attempts to your site


Common Add-Ons
YouTube/Flickr slideshows

Now able to just throw the URL in a post and WordPress does the
heavy lifting for you.

Feedburner - Feedburner.com

Track your RSS stats

Free account and Plugin required

Google Analytics

Track your Site stats

Free account required, Plugin is useful


URL Shorteners

I use http://bit.ly because I like real-time
stats; there are other URL shorteners that
include good stats as well.
HootSuite’s ow.ly links and Google’s
goo.gl links are just two more.


JavaScript Effects

jQuery (javascript) is easy to add.
http://docs.jquery.com/UI/Accordion
Depends on theme, but code goes in
functions.php


Let’s Do Some Quick
Modifications


Best Practices
Do not search for the “cheapest” solution.
Buy hosting, domain, and services
FROM ONE PLACE.
Prepare documents with all your log-in
and account information.
Search for coupons before purchasing.


Finally

Do not feel “stuck” with one WordPress
developer. We all charge different rates,
we all have similar skill sets.
The differentiating factor is the care and
consideration they give to you as the
client.


Free eBook!

For a more in-depth look and explanation
on the topics we’ve covered today, I’ve
created an eBook.
My eventual goal is to sell it, but you
lucky ducks get it for free. Subscribe to
my blog to get a notification.


Q+A Time - Thank You!
Time to ask and answer specific
questions
NickMArmstrong@gmail.com
www.IAmNickArmstrong.com
Twitter: @ImNickArmstrong (say hi!)
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/
NickMArmstrong


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