WordPress, now used by over 22% of all websites in the US including mom and pop shops and Fortune 500’s, will be the topic of the discussion. With a message specifically tailored to the WordPress novice/intermediate user, Cody Sharp will guide the attendees through the Good, the Bad, and the Required of WordPress.
During the video, I Discuss:
Why a company may want to choose WordPress.
How to pick a good WordPress theme.
The MUST HAVE plugins for WP.
The best hosting options for a WP website.
How to keep your WP website from being hacked.
How to set up your WP website to be optimized for search engines.
How to get more web-based leads from your website.
And more.
2. Things We’ll Go Through
Some Background on WordPress
Themes
Security
Hosting
Plugins
Search
Lead Gen
If we have time, more stuff
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3. About WordPress – The Foundation
More than 1 in 4 new websites are built on WordPress
More than 30,000 plugins are available
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4. Themes – The Structure
What is a theme?
Should I create an entirely custom theme?
How do I pick a good theme?
Themeforest.net
Comments
Discussions
Ongoing updates
Won’t it look the same?
No
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5. How People Think Websites Get
Hacked
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6. The Real Way Websites Get Hacked
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7. How to Host Your WordPress Website
Don’t do it yourself unless you have a great IT team
Basic hosts work great but are missing one unique feature of premium hosts
Basic hosts include Hostgator, GoDaddy, Network Solutions
These guys are pretty cheap – start at $5/month.
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8. Premium WordPress Hosts
Wpengine.com and Flywheel Hosting (https://getflywheel.com/)
Automatic daily backups
Staging!
These guys cost a bit more – Start at $25/month. Likely worth it unless you have an
awesome in-house IT team comfortable with WordPress.
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9. Must Use Plugins
WordPress SEO by Yoast – Free!
Gravity Forms - Starts at $39/yr
Ninja Popups - $25
Akismet – Free!
Google Analyticator – Free!
XML Sitemap & Google News feeds – Free!
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10. Setting Up Your Website for Search
Install Google Analytics
Add to Google My Business
Google Webmaster Tools
Fix Broken Links (Crawl Errors)
Sitemaps
Sitelinks (Remove the ones you don’t want)
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11. Lead Capture
Gravity Forms
Connect to CRM (SalesForce, Marketo, etc.)
Goal tracking within Google Analytics
Responsive
Desktop Form
Mobile Form
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12. Other Things
WordPress offers an app for both Android and iPhone. You can
manage/update your website from your phone.
Straight From Google
Starting April 21, Google will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a
ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages
worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.
Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results
that are optimized for their devices.
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Plugins – like the app store of web development
http://techcrunch.com/
http://www.newyorker.com/
http://hc1.com/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Thinking that picking the same theme as everyone else means all websites will look the same is like saying everyone that makes their picks on the March madness brackets is starting with the same list and worrying that it will turn out the same.
http://theme-fusion.com/avada/home-version-5/
http://theme-fusion.com/avada_demos/agency/
Imagine not installing an antivirus on you computer for 1.5 years and going on the internet every day