Michelle Castillo presented 20 tips for making a WordPress website look professional. She recommends using themes like Genesis, Divi, or Thrive Themes which have many options. Basic practices include removing the meta block and customizing the footer copyright. Colors are important for the design and she provides resources for color schemes. Images can be taken or purchased from stock sites, and free sources like Unsplash are also mentioned. Tools for editing images include Gimp, Photoshop, and SumoPaint. Getting help with images can be found on sites like UpWork by posting job descriptions.

1. Connect With Me:
Email: Michelle@CastilloMediaGroup.com
LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook ( Feel Free to Like us  )
Websites:
WPInsider.org
SpotOnDigitalMarketing.com
A presentation given to the WordPress Insider meetup on
February 4, 2016

2. 20 tips, tricks
and secrets to
making your
WordPress
website look
professional

3. 20 tips ?
 WordPress themes
 Basic practices no one should miss
 Colors
 Pictures/Images
 Tools for image editing
 Where to get help

4. Themes for none techies
with tons of options
Genesis + Dynamik website builder
Divi theme by Elegant Themes
Thrive Themes
Avada

5. Theme options can be
overwhelming
AvadaDynamik website builder

6. Good starter themes
FREE: The default WordPress themes :
 TwentySixteen, TwentyFifteen etc.
 I especially like TwentyThirteen
Premium: Genesis

7. Basic must-
do changes

8. Basic Get Rid of Meta Block
 Get rid of the “meta”
section that is installed
by default

9. Change the Footer Copyright
 Some themes provide an easy interface to change.
 If not, you will have to edit the footer.php file. ( In
Appearance/Editor )

10. Changing Footer Copyright
Editing footer.php file:

11. Add a Favicon

12. Never use the “Uncategorized”
category
 Make sure you have no blog posts that have the
“Uncategorized” category.
 You can edit the “Uncategorized” category and rename
it. That way you will never have to be embarrassed
again

13. Colors make a
big difference…

14. COLORS
 The color theory …
 Tools:
 Paletton.com
 Adobe Color
 Contrast Ratio is a tool that lets you test the readability
of text in different color schemes.

15. Color Schemes Inspiration
 http://design-seeds.com/
 https://designschool.canva.com/blog/100-color-
combinations/
 Pictaculous - an app that generates a color scheme for
you based on five primary colors from a photo that you
upload to the program.
 ColourLovers.com

16. Other websites
 A great source for inspiration: other websites
 Color Picker – ColorZila extension for Chrome &
FireFox

17. Images/Photos – Where to get them?
 Take your own pictures.
 Buy from royalty free websites:
 http://www.shutterstock.com/
 http://www.bigstockphoto.com/
 http://deathtothestockphoto.com/

18. Free Photo Resources
 Unsplash – Free high quality photography, our personal favorite.
 Flickr Creative Commons — You can find great images here. The
usage conditions vary, but you generally need to give credit to the
photographer.
 FreeImages.com — An excellent free resource. You may have to
do some digging on the site for quality images.
 Wikipedia Commons — You’re free to use any images or media
on Wikipedia.
 Ask permission — It doesn’t hurt to ask your favorite
photographers. You’ll have more luck with this if you provide
credit and have site traffic.

19. Using Images In Your
Website
 Make sure to resize images so that they load fast.
 Cut/Resize images to have same size when used in
similar or proximate locations on the website. Bad
example)

20. Image Editing
 Image editing
 Online editing: SumoPaint.com
 Free software – Gimp
 Photoshop
 Paint.net
 Irfanview
What do you use?

21. Getting Help – UpWork.com
Job description in UpWork.com
Clean background of 111 product pictures
I have 111 products pictures with various backgrounds. (
Mostly shades of grey). I need the background of these
images to be cleaned and made white so that only the
product shows.
I will send few samples to qualified applicants
Cost: $20 Time: Less then 24hrs

22. Getting Help
Job description in UpWork.com
Image touch ups needed
I have an image of stone and grass which is the entrance
of a client business. Need to be made cleaner and nicer
looking. ( Cost $5 . Time: Less then 24hrs )

23. Getting Help
Job description in UpWork.com
Resize and rename 180 images
Looking for someone who can systematically and efficiently
rename and resize approximately 180 JPEG images so that they can
be added to our website.
If you want to be considered to this job make sure to answer the
screening question.
(Which tools are you going to use in order to execute this job?)

24. Questions ????

25. Connect With Me:
Email: Michelle@CastilloMediaGroup.com
LinkedIn
Twitter: @MichelleCasti
Facebook/WordPressInsider
Websites
WPInsider.org
SpotOnDigitalMarketing.com