Web consultant Andrew Buller takes you through the basic steps when first creating your WordPress site. These slides contain lots of useful links to other online resources. Topics include choosing your domain names, hosting, themes, essential plugins, creating posts and pages, search engine optimisation and google analytics.

1. By Andrew Buller
www.andrewbuller.com

2.  Choosing a domain name & hosting package
 WordPress.org vs WordPress.com
 ChoosingThemes & Essential Plugins
 KeepingWordPress secure
 Pages & Posts
 Images
 Widgets
 Website analytics
 Search EngineOptimisation (SEO)

3.  Domain name identifies your website to users
 Keep it short and memorable – but branding key
 May consider more than .com eg; .net .co.uk
 Length of domain name purchase – used to be believed
that longer purchase helped Search Engine Optimisation
 For security ideally keep domain name purchaser &
hosting separate
 1000s of hosting options available

4.  WordPress.org is the central location for theWordPress
software project
 Download it, view the documentation, ask and answer
questions in the forums and more
 WordPress.com is a service that offers websites that run
on WordPress
 Sign up for a free account and get a fully functioning website
 Only be able to use with aWordPress.com subdomain

5.  Choosing a theme is often the most difficult task of all
 Testing if theme works for you is complex & takes time to see it in action
 No such thing as a perfect theme – website speed & easy navigation more
important than visual perfection
 Code quality of theme affects the speed of your website which affects your
users directly
 Test plugins with a default theme such as Twenty Fifteen – as clean,
minimal, coded by WordPress team & supports all plugins
 Free vs paid themes – don’t necessarily get what you pay for
http://www.wpbeginner.com/showcase/best-free-wordpress-blog-themes/

6.  responsive between desktop, tablet & phone
 good design, including strong readability and easy
navigation
 solid, secure and speedy code
 compatibility with the latest version ofWordPress
 active development
 compatibility with popular plugins
 support and documentation

7.  Some plugins, if coded poorly, can slow your
website - always look for plugins with:
 good reviews
 sizeable user base
 active development team
 Install new plugins from menu
on dashboard

8.  Jetpack – site security, website performance, traffic growth, image
optimisation, website appearance and more
 Akismet – pre-installed – removes spam
 Yoast – Search EngineOptimisation
 W3Total Cache – speeds up website
 WPForms Lite – simple form builder
 BackWPUp – freeWordPress website back up
 Wordfence – for website security
www.themegrill.com/blog/best-wordpress-plugins/

9.  1000s available & different needs for different websites
 Shortcodes Ultimate – adds coding such as quotes &
dividers easily
 Testimonials – adds rolling testimonials
 Ditty NewsTicker – adds rolling news items
 Foo Gallery – displaying images in gallery
 MailChimp for WordPress – liaises with email mailing

10.  Always keepWordPress, plugins & themes up-to-
date – updating may change how your site looks
 Use strong passwords & change them every few
months
 Regularly back up yourWordPress website –
BackWPUp Plugin

11.  Key pages for any website – Home, About &
Contact
 Pages shown in tab order – create site structure

12.  Page Attributes
 Parent – choose if you want your new page to appear
under another page in your menu structure
 Order – numeric order pages appear across & down
 Switch betweenVisual &Text to see HTML coding
 Use Headings 1 & 2 for keywords to be picked up
in Google searches

13.  Make amendments from Appearance >
Theme Options > Home Page
 Options available depend on theme chosen
 Options alter with theme upgrades
 Opportunity to add social sharing icons
 Can use widgets to add further content

14.  Blog posts appear in side bar widget
 Create “Blog” page to add them all with most recent at top –
www.andrewbuller.com/blog
 Use Publicize to share with social media
 Use categories & tags in blog
 Set feature image
 Can schedule when want post to go out & set if public/private post
 Include plenty of white space, short paragraphs, lots of sub-headings & images
 Many posts on blog writing tips:
www.blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-write-blog-post-simple-formula-ht

15.  Small file sizes for web (72 dpi) – use software
eg; Photoshop to compress prior to upload
 Use of ALT tags key for SEO
 Foo Gallery plugin displays
multiple images effectively
 Images can be viewed & edited in Media Library

16.  Widgets found in Appearance menu
 Enables website to display information
in different parts of page layout
 Many different widgets available but
dependent on the plugins installed
 Areas available to add widgets vary with
theme chosen
 Main Sidebar often a key area for site

17.  Jetpack site statistics – basic stats
 GoogleAnalytics – much more advanced
http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-
install-google-analytics-in-wordpress/

18.  Yoast Plugin a great help with optimisation
 Good quality, keyword rich text
 Images with ALT tags
 SEO advice:
https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/your-
startup-guide-to-seo-a-wordpress-seo-tutorial/

19.  Check how your website looks on desktop,
tablet & phone – test theme’s responsiveness
 Give it a go!
 Be prepared for things to go wrong from time
to time – lots of deep breaths!
 Lots of great resources available to help

20.  www.andrewbuller.com/consultancy/website
-development
 www.wpbeginner.com
 www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/02/begin
ners-guide-creating-wordpress-website/