Building a WordPress Powered Website

Building a WordPress Powered Website - Presentation Transcript

With Deltina Hay of Dalton Publishing, Social Media Power, and PlumbSocial.com... Author of A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization As presented for the Nonprofit Bar Camp on November 14, 2009 in Austin, Texas.

What is WordPress?

A blogging platform
A CMS (content management system)

A platform for building robust Websites
Usually programmed in php and use MySQL databases
Usually open source, so many enhancements and support available, and easily customized

Don't confuse WordPress.org with WordPress.com

Why use WordPress to power your Website?

Easy to set up and maintain
Uses RSS technology so integrates easily with the rest of the Social Web
Widgetized, so easy to add widgets and badges from other Websites
Regular upgrades and security releases
Good support forums and network
Free!
Many themes and plugins available...

What are plugins?

Enhancements and add ons to WordPress
Since WordPress is open source, there are many developers creating plugins
Easy to install and set up
As simple as a comment spam filter
As complicated as a full-featured shopping cart...

What are plugins?

What are themes?

Templates that change the look and feel of a WordPress site
Very easy to install
Again, open source, so there are many free themes available
Most are easy to customize with new colors, headers, etc...

What are themes?

Diversity of WordPress powered Websites...

One reason some decide not to use a CMS is that they are concerned their site may look too “templated”
This is the case for some CMSs – but not for WordPress
The following slides depict a collection of sites that were built using WordPress as a CMS...

Diversity of WordPress powered Websites...

Anatomy of a WordPress Website:

Header
Navigation
Main body area
Sidebars
Footer
Sidebar widgets
Static pages

Anatomy of a WordPress Website... (note header and footer on this one, along with sidebars)

Anatomy of a WordPress Website... (static page that has no sidebars)

Anatomy of a WordPress Website... (note that sidebars to not have to be on the “side” - there are three on the bottom here)

Anatomy of a WordPress Website... (this one has a static home page - as opposed to blog posts on the home page)

Anatomy of a WordPress Website... (blog page with a different sidebar as the static pages)

Anatomy of a WordPress Website... (site with blog as home page)

Anatomy of a WordPress Website... (static page)

Anatomy of a WordPress Website... (the header and footer are only images – and the navigation and sidebar are combined – only thing that changes is the main body area of each page)

Setting up a WordPress Website:

Download and install

Make sure you install in your root folder and not in a directory
Need some knowledge of how to install php on your server and how to install MySQL and create databases and tables
You can get help from your host or from the WordPress forums

Make some important initial settings (permalink structure, static home page, comment approvals, security settings, etc.)
Plan the site (what functionalities does it need)
Choose and customize a theme based on your plan
Choose, install, and set up plugins to accomplish functionalities (including essential plugins for anti-spam, security, and SEO)
Set up sidebars (place standard and custom widgets)
Build static pages and populate blog

Planning your WordPress site:

List the features you want (don't hold back)

RSS feed (blog) subscription options
Ways for others to share your site (like to social bookmarking sites)
Widgets from other social sites like Facebook and Twitter
Image/Video Galleries
Shopping cart or donation features
Event listings or calendar widgets
Submission forms
Surveys or polls
Imported feeds from other sites
And so forth...

Choosing a theme:

Choose your theme once you know the features you want, not before...
Make certain is has one more sidebar than you think you need (easier to delete than to add)
Is typically easy to change color schemes, headers, fonts and such – so choose based on look and feel

Choosing a theme:

Choosing Plugins:

Choose plugins to accomplish the functionalities in your plan
Try not to install plugins “just because they are cool” - sometimes it is best to use existing functionality
Pay attention to the ratings, how many times a plugin has been downloaded, and that it has been tested for the latest version of WordPress
Go to the plugin & author's Website to make sure the plugin is being supported
A good rule of thumb when setting up a plugin is that if you can't do it in two tries, find another plugin to do the job (they should be pretty straightforward to set up)

Choosing plugins:

A look at the WordPress Backend (dashboard):

A look at the WordPress Backend (adding posts – adding pages is the same):

A look at the WordPress Backend (can change themes with one click, add them and customize them):

A look at the WordPress Backend (can maintain, add, and customize plugins):

A look at the WordPress Backend (once a plugin is installed, you can maintain its settings here – where applicable):

A look at the WordPress Backend (this is where you create and place your sidebar widgets):

A look at the WordPress Backend (shows the resulting sidebars from the previous slide):

Upkeep and Security of Your WordPress Website:

Keep blog posts current
Always update to latest version of WordPress and plugins:

One-click upgrade with latest WordPress versions
Be careful if you have customized the code
Always back-up before an upgrade

Essential plugins:

Spam filter (Akismet)
Security plugins
SEO plugin

Optimizing Your WordPress Website:

Optimize blog by:

Using good keyterms in posts, as categories and tags
Burning your feed to FeedBurner.com
Adding to many blog directories

Optimize Website by:

Using (to its fullest) the latest version of a good SEO plugin
Making it easy for others to share, interact, and collaborate using tools like AddtoAny.com
Taking advantage of how your site can integrate with the rest of the Social Web...(that is a whole different session)

Finding Resources:

WordPress.org

Documentation and tutorials
Links to other resources
Links to WordPress-friendly hosts

Open Source “Netiquette:”

Search forums thoroughly before posting a question
Give back:

Donate to plugins you use regularly
Share your new-found knowledge on the forums

Never remove the “Powered by WordPress” statement and link from the footer of your site. It is one of the only license requirements for using this free software.

Questions... ?

Thank you for participating!