Coolfields Consulting www.coolfields.co.uk
@coolfields
What is this thing called Love?
Graham Armfield
Web Accessibility Consultant
WordPress Developer
graham.armfield@coolfields.co.uk
@coolfields

What I’m going to cover
• What is WordPress?
• How WordPress Works
• Adding content to your WordPress website
• How to get a WordPress website
• Maintaining a WordPress website
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What is WordPress?

What is WordPress?
Some history
• Created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little
in 2003 as a development of b2/cafelog.
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What is WordPress?
Some history contd
• Received a boost when Movable Type
started restricting free use.
• For years WordPress was primarily a
blogging platform
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An Early WordPress Site
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More Features
Extra features added, so the possibilities are
now almost endless.
WordPress can now support many types of
website. For example:
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• consumer review sites
• job boards
• membership sites (inc
with subscription)
• business websites
• community portals
• e-commerce websites
• classified ads

Increasingly the World's Choice
You can allow others to contribute content to your site.
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Increasingly the World's Choice
WordPress now 'powers' 20% of all websites
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from builtwith.com

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How WordPress Works
Core
Themes
Plugins

WordPress is a CMS
All content is stored in a
database…
… not in separate HTML files.
Which makes things very flexible.
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WordPress Core
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The WordPress core is what makes the site go
from prewarminor.com

WordPress Core
• Built with PHP
• Open source
• Maintained by volunteers, and developers
from Automattic
• Updated regularly
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WordPress Themes
Themes govern the look of a WordPress website
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolymatt/

WordPress Themes
• Only ever 1 theme active at any time
• Handles layout of site and styles – so, the
overall look and feel
• Most themes are free and developed by
volunteers
• Themes can be swapped in and out fairly
easily (in theory)
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WordPress Themes
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolymatt/

WordPress Plugins
Plugins are your optional extras
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/etheltheaardvark/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/

WordPress Plugins
• A site can (in theory) have any number of
plugins active at any time
• Plugins are available for many different
needs:
Improve SEO, protecting against spam, social
media, membership, forums, handling images,
improve usability of admin, improve site
security
• Most plugins are free and developed by
volunteers
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The Whole Picture
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http://mysite.com/about-us

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Adding Content into WordPress

WordPress Admin Screens
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Posts vs Pages
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Posts
• Time sensitive
• Blog entries, articles
• News about something, events,
assignments
• Can be categorised
• May be presented in a list
Pages
• Non time sensitive
• More permanent content
• Could have hierarchical structure
• Examples: Home Page, About Me,
Contact Me

List of Posts/Pages
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Add a New Page or Post
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Adding an Image
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Image and Categories Added
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Published Post
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How to Get a WordPress Website

Two Versions of WordPress 1
wordpress.com
• Hosted by WordPress
• Free and quick to signup
• Basic choice of themes + plugins
• URL format: mysite.wordpress.com
• Paid for features
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Two Versions of WordPress 2
wordpress.org
• Self hosted – need a hosting area
• Own the domain name
• Free to download
• Unlimited choice of themes + plugins
• Bespoke themes possible
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Choosing a Theme
For wordpress.org version
• Free themes -
http://wordpress.org/themes/
• Premium themes -
http://wordpress.org/themes/commercial/
For wordpress.com version
• Integrated into admin area
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Choosing Plugins
For wordpress.org version
• http://wordpress.org/plugins/
For wordpress.com version
• Very limited but integrated into admin
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Getting a Developer Involved
For wordpress.org version
• To design and build a theme for you
• To create extra functionality as required
• Install and configure more advanced
plugins
• Tailor the site to your needs
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WordPress and Accessibility
Front end is as accessible as:
• Chosen theme
• Chosen plugins
• What your content authors do
Admin screens:
• Not fully accessible
• But getting better
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Maintaining a WordPress Site

Upgrading Versions
WordPress core
• Automated updates for
minor releases
Themes
Plugins
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Comments and User Accounts
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Comments
• You can manage all the comments
you've received
• Edit, delete
Users
• Guest authors
• Co-authors
• Editors
• Administrators

Choosing a New Theme
Your content is still intact, but…
• You may need to reattach
menus
• You may need to rebuild
your widgets
• Some functionality may
stop working
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Choosing New Plugins
Useful ones include:
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• Akismet
• WordPress SEO
• Relevanssi
• Cyclone Slider 2
• Tablepress
• WP to Twitter
• Subscribe 2

Spam
Should you allow comments on your site?
• Comments demonstrate that people are engaging
with your content
• The presence of comments encourages more
comments and engagement
• BUT you will start to get spam comments
• Ensure you use a spam protection plugin
• Akismet comes with WordPress but it's not free for
anything other than a personal site
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Site Security
Most WordPress sites will come under attack
at some time - usually 'brute force' attempts
to break in to the admin screens.
Usernames and Passwords
• Never use 'admin' or 'administrator'
• Always ensure passwords are strong – you
can use letters (uppercase and lowercase),
numbers and some punctuation symbols
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Security Plugins
Wordfence Security
• Blocks or throttles multiple page requests
• Blocks IP addresses for multiple logon
failures
• Scans website for latest version of core,
themes and plugins.
• Also scans for malware in your
WordPress folders
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Security Plugins (Advanced)
Audit Trail
• Logs activity on the admin area of the
site
WordPress File Monitor Plus
• Spots changes to any files on the site
Rename wp-login
• Moves your login page to a different
place
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Thanks for listening
graham.armfield@coolfields.co.uk
@coolfields