For many, content development is one of the road blocks they face when building their WordPress site. Some folks worry about how to organize their content in categories, some fret about how to use tags, linking strategies mystifies others. This WPATX Beginner’s presentation will focus on the tools and processes available to help you develop and implement a winning content creation strategy. After making all the hard choices to design and develop a great looking website every website owner faces the same problem — “feed the beast” syndrome. How do we continually produce steady stream of engaging content for our WordPress site? How often should we update the content on our site’s ‘static’ pages? What can we do to add some dynamic content to our static pages to keep the search spiders coming back? We will discuss both offline and online tools and resources to help you brainstorm topics for your site’s blog, produce great content for your target audience, and ways to use that content to your build your online community. This presentation will review the use of categories in content organization, styles of written content that are most effective, curating content, mobile-friendly content formats, and the increasing importance of photos & video content
4. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
WHAT ARE POSTS?
• The entries into your WordPress
Blog are Posts
• Post content is listed in reverse
chronological order in your blog
• Post are meant to be timely so
the most current information is
listed first
• Older posts are archived based
on month and year
• All your Posts searchable by
Categories and Tags
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HOW DO WE DISTRIBUTE
OUR POST CONTENT• Most Bloggers syndicate their
Posts through the RSS feeds
• RSS feeds lets Bloggers notify
readers about the most recent
Posts
• Bloggers can use the RSS feeds
to deliver email broadcasts
through services like Aweber or
MailChimp
• Using tools like MailChimp you
can invite your readers to
subscribe to a weekly newsletter
create weekly newsletters build
from your most recent Posts
6. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
HOW DO WE DISTRIBUTE
OUR POST CONTENT?
• Post Are Social
• Install one of the many
social sharing plugins to
encourage readers to
share your posts in
social media networks
like Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn or other venues
that fit your user profile
7. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
POSTS PROMPT
RESPONSE AND
CONVERSATION• Posts have a have a
built-in commenting
feature that allow users
to comment on a
particular topic
• You can control the
‘How, When and If’ of
Commenting through
your WordPress
Dashboard Settings
8. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
PAGES
• Page Content is not
meant to expire — but
Content on a Page can
easily be updated
• Pages are not intended
to be social — but some
will have Social Buttons
connecting readers to
the site’s Social Media
accounts to encourage
Follows or Likes
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PAGES
• Unlike posts, pages are
hierarchical by nature
• You can have a sub
pages within a page —
allowing you to organize
your pages together, and
even assign a custom
template to them
10. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
PAGES VS. POSTS —
SUMMARY OF PRIMARY
DIFFERENCES• Posts are timely vs. Pages are timeless
• Posts are social vs. Pages are NOT
• Posts can be categorized vs. Pages are hierarchical
• Posts are included in RSS feed vs. Pages are not
• Pages have custom template feature vs. Posts do not
• Note “ Edge Case Exceptions”: You can use plugins or
code snippets to extend the functionality of both content types
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UNDERSTANDING
CATEGORIES AND TAGS• Categories and Tags are
both known as taxonomies in
the WordPress
nomenclature
• The sole purpose of
Categories and Tags are to
sort and organize your
content to improve the
usability of your site
• Sorting and organizing site
content helps the visitor
more easily browse content
by topic rather than
chronologically
13. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
CATEGORIES
• Categories are meant for broad
grouping of your posts
• Think of these as general topics
or the table of contents for your
site.
• Categories are there to help
identify what your blog is really
about.
• It is to assist readers finding the
right type of content on your
site.
• Categories are hierarchical, so
you can sub-categories
14. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
CATEGORIES
• Categories are meant for a
broad grouping of your posts
• Think of these as general topics
or the table of contents for your
site
• Categories are there to help
identify what your blog is really
about
• It is to assist readers finding the
right type of content on your site
• Categories are hierarchical, so
you can sub-categories
15. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
CATEGORIES
• Categories are meant for a broad
grouping of your posts
• No one can accurately predict all the
right categories
• A Best Practice is to start with five
generic categories
• Then become more specific using
subcategories
• Measure your site visitor’s reaction and
engagement
• Adjust and add Categories and
subcategories as dictated by
community interest and involvement
16. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
HOW TO USE GENERIC
CATEGORIES TO FUTURE-
PROOF YOUR BLOG
• Build a Primary
Category Structure with
generic categories like
—
• How-To’s
• News
• Case Studies
• Tools
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WHEN TO ADD A
SUB-CATEGORY
• Whenever you find that you are writing about a Sub Topic topic
repeatedly…
• Example: Main Category “How To’s”
• Frequent sub-topic to “How To’s” topic — A/B Testing
• If you are focusing on A/B Testing more than five times — Make
it a Sub-Category to the Parent Category of “How To’s”
• Go back to the previous A/B Testing blogs and correct the
existing Category reference
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ASSIGNING ONE POST
MULTIPLE CATEGORIES
• With the proper use of Parent and Sub-
Categories you shouldn’t need to classify one
post into multiple top-level categories
• Adding multiple categories to a post DOES
NOT benefit SEO
• Adding multiple categories to a post DOES
NOT benefit user experience
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BEST PRACTICE FOR
MANAGING CATEGORIES• EXAMPLE —Your blog has three categories:
• Project Management
• Enterprise Resource Management
• Client Relationship Management
• You notice that your many of your posts can fit into all of these multiple
categories
• A Best Practice would be to identify an umbrella category for all three
• Maybe these posts should be Categorized under Business
Management with a sub-category of Project Management, ERP or
CRM?
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BECAUSE YOU CAN —
DOES NOT MEAN YOU
SHOULD• WordPress ALLOWS you to add one post into as many
categories as you like
• Many Bloggers assign one post into multiple categories
because they THINK it helps your users
• However
• You should think of Categories as Table of Contents for your
blog
• Posts with the same Category are Chapters of your Blog
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WHAT’S THE OPTIMAL
NUMBER OF WORDPRESS
CATEGORIES?• There are no specific optimal number of
categories
• It depends on the size and complexity of
your site
• For the sake of structure and usability a
Best Practice is to utilize Sub-categories and
Tags
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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN CATEGORIES AND
TAGS• The biggest difference between Categories
and Tags is that you MUST categorize your
post
• If you do not categorize your post, then it will
be categorized under the “Uncategorized”
category
• You are not required to add any tags
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TAGS
• Tags were added In WordPress 2.5 to improve the
usability of your site
• Tags are not hierarchical
• Tags are meant to describe specific details of your posts.
• Think of Tags as your Blogs Index words.
• Tags are the micro-data that you can use to describe your
content
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SHOULD YOU LIMIT NUMBER
OF TAGS ASSIGNED TO
EACH POST?
• Think of Tags as an Index and Categories as being the
Table of Contents of your Blog
• Tags are popular keywords that loosely relate your posts
• Tags make it easy for users to find your Posts using the
WordPress search
• I don’t care What you are Blogging about —It is very
hard to justify more than Ten Tags for a Blog Post
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DO TAGS WORK LIKE
META KEYWORDS?
• Rookie Mistake: Adding as many Tags as
possible thinking Tags are meta keywords
• Tags are NOT default meta keywords for your
blog
• Installing the ‘SEO by Yoast’ plugin enables
you to use your Tag structure in the meta
keywords template
27. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
SEO
CATEGORIES VS TAGS
• The question of using Categories over Tags
or vice versa for a SEO Advantage is a
NON-ISSUE
• Categories and Tags are just the two
default taxonomies, designed to work
together, that comes with WordPress
28. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
LAST THOUGHTS ABOUT
CATEGORIES AND TAGS
• Your site’s Blog is an ever-evolving book
• Develop the Table of Content (categories)
carefully
• Chose broad topics — but be careful not to
be too vague
• Use Tags to generally relate multiple posts
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LAST THOUGHTS ABOUT
CATEGORIES AND TAGS
• If a specific Tag seems to be trending — give
some consideration making it a sub-category
• If the trending Tag would have to be added as a
subcategory to several multiple top-level
categories — leave it as a TAG
• The goal is always to make the site as user-
friendly as possible
30. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
LAST THOUGHTS ABOUT
CATEGORIES AND TAGS
• Most advanced sites use custom taxonomies
for sorting their content in addition to
categories and tags
• Custom Taxonomies will be addressed In a
future WordPress Practitioner’s Class
34. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
STEP 3
Turn on the Idea
machine
- look for ongoing topic
conversations-online & off
- Use your blog and
Cornerstone pages to
express your unique
value as an industry
expert
51. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
CONTENT CREATION
CHECK LIST
• Check your “inspiration sources” for
content ideas
• Choose a headline
• Check keyword competition and edit
your headline as needed
• Research and plan your article
• Choose your category and add tags
• Fill in the SEO fields
• Write your first draft
• Go back and edit out cliches and add
keywords and phrases
• Add images, video, and/or other rich
content
• Re-read it. Edit.
• Add an excerpt
• Read it again
• Publish
• Check your editorial schedule for the
next article
53. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
Sandi Batik
WordPress evangelist, consultant, trainer, curricula
developer, author, unapologetic geek, unrepentant
capitalist, lucky enough to do what I love everyday. I’ve
served as Austin WordPress Meetup co-organizer since
2010. With my husband Nick Batik, co-founded Pleiades
Publishing Services in 1992 and Hands-On WordPress
Training in 2010.
Follow me @sandi_batik / @WPATX
Contact me at: handsonwp.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsandrachevalierbatik
Presenter
54. HandsOnWP.com @nick_batik@sandi_batik
Nick Batik
Started in web development in 1994 and have been a
WordPress consultant, and web developer since 2007.
A WordPress evangelist, I’ve served as Austin
WordPress Meetup co-organizer since 2010. With my
partner, co-founded Pleiades Publishing Services in 1992
and Hands-On WordPress Training in 2010.
Follow me @nick_batik / @WPATX
Contact me at: handsonwp.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasbatik
Presenter