WordPress for Beginners

WordPress for Beginnerswith Michelle Ames

MarketedByMichelle.com

A Little About Me

Entrepreneur Volunteer Social butterfly Scrabble player Tea snob Mom School board member Marketing fanatic 11th hour expert Owner and marketing diva at Marketed by Michelle

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So you want a piece of the Internet… Originally a blogging medium, WordPress now offers

a great platform for creating almost any kind of website – from blogs to brochure sites to e-commerce.

WordPress is used by 59.6% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 26.5% of all websites.


You’re in good company According to the WordPress showcase page,

WP powers some major players, including: Groupe Renault Vogue.com Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African

Art Tribune Media The New Yorker Time.com mercedes-benz.com Rush open.nasa.gov Ariana Grande Angry Birds Walt Disney Company NY Post Ringling Bros. Circus Fortune Beyonce Dallas Mavericks Wil Wheaton Sweden’s official site Georgia State University Justin Bieber


Basic Installation Where to get started

Choose a theme. Upload it. Free vs. Premium

Updates Less recognizable Documentation (usually) Support and forums Get rid of footer links Often easily customized

Customize it. Logo, colors, background images.

Note:Changing your theme won’t delete your content (media, posts, and pages) but most likely WILL delete any customization – so if you revert back to an older theme you will have to re-enter customizations.


Basic Installation Where to get started

Choose your plugins and upload them. Some of my “must haves” include:

Security (WordFence) Spam Control (Disable Comments) Backup (Backup Buddy, WPClone) Forms (Gravity Forms, Jotform) Calendar (Timely) SEO (Yoast) Post Expirator Shopping Cart

(woo commerce, Ecwid, shopify)

Note:Logged into your wordpress.org account? Favorite the plugins you use frequently for easy uploading from the repository.


Basic Installation Posts Where posts appear on the site is theme-dependent

Categories vs. Tags Scheduling Expiration (plugin required) Featured Image

Note:If you are using a slider, make sure your featured image matches the slider dimensions.


Basic Installation Media

Photos Graphics Pdf files Documents Etc.

Note:Make sure photos are sized well so they don’t slow down your site. Link to video on YouTube or Vimeo.


Basic Installation Pages – the “meat” of your site.

Choose your template (different with every theme) Choose a “parent” for hierarchy Set featured image – if desired Use headings <H tags> for both reading and SEO purposes Use “save draft” to continue working without publishing the

page – or losing edits. Click “view page” to see work in progress

Note:Using the “Visual” vs. “Text” views will allow you to access and edit different aspects of the page.


Basic Installation Comments

Use a spam filter if you invite comments.

NoteYou can always check the spam filter to make sure that any comments you want to let through are found and approved.


Appearance Themes

Delete anything you are not using or will not use. Customize will have different options based on the

theme. Background may or may not display as you intend –

based on the theme.

Note:Never edit theme files directly! Use a child theme or CSS editor (like the one included with Jetpack) to make CSS edits.


Appearance Widgets

Widget areas also vary based on themes, but most have similar functions. Variations may include WHERE widgets can be placed (i.e. footer, sidebar, header, etc.)

Standard widgets include text boxes, meta functions, calendar of posts, categories, menus, etc.

Plugins can often provide additional widget options like Facebook “like” boxes, Twitter feeds, and even industry-specific options like real estate MLS lookups.

Note:The Text Widget allows you to use basic HTML language to add content, links, graphics, etc. This can really come in handy!


Appearance Menus

Menus are much more versatile than you may think! Establish link hierarchy through dropdowns Add links to outside pages in your menu Customize labels – change the menu name without

changing the target page or link name Add blog categories as their own menu items

Note:Want a menu link to open in a new tab? Click the “Screen Options” tab at the top of the menu dashboard and check “link target.” Now when you edit a menu item you can check “open in new window/tab.”MarketedByMichelle.com

Users User Roles

Administrator – somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site.

Editor – somebody who can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users.

Author – somebody who can publish and manage their own posts.

Contributor – somebody who can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.

Subscriber – somebody who can only manage their profile.Note:Be very cautious about assigning administrator rights to anyone. They will have access to make ANY changes on your site.


Settings What to Change

General Settings Site Title Tagline Timezone Date Format Week Starts On

Note:Be careful not to change your WP or Site addresses unless you are confident of what you are doing. You can make your site “disappear.” You have to know how to navigate the cPanel well to fix it.


Settings What to Change

Permalinks Permalinks will default to unfriendly URL page names

(like sitename.com/?p=123) Instead click the “Post Name” setting to have your page

names appear in the URL bar. (like www.sitename.com/pagename)

Note:Using Post Names as the URL page name also assists with SEO!


Must-Haves Favicon

A favicon is that tiny 16x16 pixel image that displays in the tab of your browser page and is unique to your site. Without one all you will see is this.

To create a great favicon, go to favicon.cc and upload and edit the image.

Some themes let you upload a file directly. You may need to FTP the file

to your theme’s image folder.Note:A favicon is the cherry on your website sundae! It’s good for branding, too!


Must-Haves Social Media Link Buttons Social Share Buttons (via plugin like Simple Share

Buttons) Footer – get rid of “proudly powered by WordPress”

and add © and designer. If your want to drive phone traffic, display the phone

number in the header. If your business or client’s business wants walk-in

traffic, add a map to the contact/location page.Note:Social sharing allows site visitors to share pages and posts to their social media pages.


Additional Info that Didn’t Fit Anywhere Else Favorite Sites

http://builtwith.com/ http://www.getip.com/ http://whatwpthemeisthat.com/ http://codex.wordpress.org/ http://www.w3schools.com/

Use the forums: themes, plugins, WordPress – there’s a wealth of knowledge from thosewho have “been there, donethat!”

Note:Use the Facebook Group forum for help on all kinds of WP questions and “problems.”


https://facebook.com/groups/rocwp

This is a local meetup for WordPress users – from beginner to advanced. Join us online to learn more…and attend our meetups on the 3rd Monday of each month.

http://builtwith.com/

http://builtwith.com/

http://www.getip.com/

http://www.getip.com/

http://whatwpthemeisthat.com/

http://whatwpthemeisthat.com/

http://codex.wordpress.org/

http://codex.wordpress.org/

http://www.w3schools.com/

http://www.w3schools.com/



Questions? Contact Me!

Michelle AmesCall/Text [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

WordPress for Beginners

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