WordPress basics for new and experienced users. WordPress background, components, themes, plugins and more.

1. Delta Strategic Marketing | Website Design
WordPress 2016
What you need to know
John Tully - DSM

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Big
THANK YOU
to
Pam and her team!

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All about me
• My name is John Tully
• Yes, I have an accent
• Small Business, Sales & Marketing for over 20 years
• DSM established 2009
• Boutique marketing company providing cost-
effective, custom-built (WP) websites for small and
micro businesses
• WordPress Implementer vs. WordPress Developer

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Agenda
Introductions (name & company)
WordPress – some background
WP Components
Essential Plugins
Security & Backing Up
Special offer!
Q & A

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Brief history of WP
• Released 2003 - Matt Mullenweg
• Open source (General Public License)
• Started as blogging platform
• Morphed into full featured CMS

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WordPress.org & WordPress.com
WordPress
vs.
WordPress

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WordPress.org & WordPress.com
• WordPress.com
–Commercial site where you can host your blog
for free (ad supported)
–Many paid upgrades (own domain, additional
space, no ads, etc)
–Limitations on themes, plugins, access to files
–Cannot be “monetized” with AdSense

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WordPress.org & WordPress.com
• WordPress.org
–Repository for downloadable software and
support documentation
–Needs external hosting
–“No” Limitations
–Simple user interface but very complex just
“behind the curtain”

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Current State of WordPress
• Number of websites
– ~25% of the top 10 million websites
– 60 million blogs/websites worldwide
• Financial
– Automattic
– (“Matt” Mullenweg)
• WordPress.com, Akismet, VaultPress, WooCommerce
• Forging ahead (REST API)

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Major components
• Core
• Themes
• Plugins

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Core Plugins
Theme
USER

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WordPress Core

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WordPress Core
• Just released 4.4.1
• Minor updates (x.x.1, x.x.2, etc., as needed)
• Major updates (4.3, 4.4 etc., 2-3/year)
• Why bother
– Things break
– Security patches
– Useful/cool updates

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Themes
• What makes your site look different to the
next one (a “skin” over the content)

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Themes
• Free vs Premium
• Rigid (“idiot proof”) vs Customizable
• Template vs Custom
• Maybe 8000 different, downloadable
themes out there

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Plugins
• WP pretty “basic” without plugins
• Additional and extended
functionality
• Free vs Premium
• 42,000+ plugins listed on
WordPress.org

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Essential Plugins
• My list
– Not the only essential plugin list out there!
• Major plugins (tackle big issues)
• Minor plugins (resolve pet peeve)

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BackupBuddy

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iThemes Security

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All-in-one SEO

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All-in-one SEO
• Takes care of a bunch of SEO code stuff
– Titles
– Descriptions
– Site Maps
– Google Analytics interface
– And more…
• Alternative – Yoast SEO

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Contact Form 7

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Contact Form 7
• Design your own contact form(s)
• A bunch of options for fields
• Customizable
• Support – a little sketchy
• Over a million downloads
• Alternatives – Gravity Forms, Formidable
Forms

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Others
• TablePress
• Easy Testimonials
• TinyMCE Widget
• Recent Posts Widget Extended
• Revive Old Post

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Security
• What’s with all these hacking attacks?
– Generally nothing personal
• Biggest vulnerability – out-of-date software
• Two pronged approach
– Hosting/Server level
– Within WordPress

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Security – Hosting level
• You get what
you pay for!
• If you don’t
know what
your host
provides – ask
• Move if you
don’t get good
answers

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Security – within WordPress
• My preferred security plugin – iThemes
Security
– Automated defenses
– Blocks attacks
– Two-level authentication
– Logs and emailed summaries
• Alternatives – VaultPress, Sucuri

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Backing Up
By show of hands
How many of you back up office files regularly?
How would you feel if you lost your main excel
sheet and couldn’t get to a back up?
How many of you back up your website?

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Backing Up
• Backing up your website is as important as
backing up your office files
• Added insurance just in case site does get
hacked
• Roll back to previous version
• Backups should be accessible and stored in
multiple locations

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Backing Up
• My preferred backup plugin is BackupBuddy
• I couldn’t do my job without it!
– Backup database or complete backup
– Download backup or send to remote destination
– Portable / transferable
– Rollback, Restore or Migrate
• Alternatives: VaultPress, Backup, Updraft

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Website Maintenance
• What is “maintenance”?
– Updates (core, plugins, themes)
– Backing up
– Security monitoring
• Not SEO or blogging or paid advertising

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Summary
• WordPress is not going anywhere for the
foreseeable future!
• Double edged sword! “By the power of
Greyskull!”
• Core – Plugins – Themes
• Essential Plugins
• Security – Backing up - Maintenance

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Offer for attendees
• FREE review / overview of your existing WP
website

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Offer for attendees
• Believe it or not….
• DSM managed monthly website maintenance
package (updates, backup and security
monitoring) – sign up for a year at $500
instead of regular price of $700!

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Thank you!
Questions?