WordPress Workshop with Tadpole, SATW 2013 Conference

WordPress Workshop
with

Tadpole Collective
Society of American Travel Writers
2013 Conference
Biloxi, MS

Tadpole Collective
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WordPress Support
Website Hosting
WordPress Training
Custom Website Development
www.tadpole.cc
hello@tadpole.cc
Twitter: @TadpoleCC

Agenda
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Widgets & Plugins
Choosing & Customizing Themes
Managing your Media
Security & Best Practices
SEO for WordPress*
Multiple authors blogs*
*Included in Full Day Sessions

Tell us about yourself
● What do you do?
● Do you already use WordPress?
● How hands-on are you with your site?
● What specific topics of interest should we
try to cover?

Widgets & Plugins
to enhance your site

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Publicize/Sharing
WordPress.com Stats
Subscriptions
Carousel/Tiled Gallery
Spelling & Grammar
Contact Form
Extra Sidebar Widgets
VideoPress/VaultPress & more...
http://jetpack.me/
http://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/

Pros & Cons
● Mega-plugin that has lots of
features in one.
● Some features you can’t get anywhere
else.
● Requires a WordPress.com account.
● Too much if you only want 1-2 features.

Using Forms
•

Free form plugins:
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•

Contact Form 7
Fast Secure Contact Form
Contact Form by ContactMe
Custom Contact Forms
Visual Form Builder

Paid form plugin:
– Gravity Forms

Why pay for Gravity Forms?
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Great selection of field types
Multi-page forms
Integrates with e-commerce
Conditional logic
Limit entries
Lots of additional GF add-ons to integrate
with your website/blog: polls, quizzes,
coupons, Freshbooks, SalesForce, MailChimp,
etc.

Paid Plugin: Gravity Forms
If they have a website, I want to
collect the URL.

Advertising on Your Site
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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CMP (cost per impression)
CPA (cost per acquisition)
CPC (cost per click)
Sponsorships / Sponsored Posts (advertorial)
Text Links
Directories / Classifieds
Newsletter Advertising
Video Advertising / Image Ads

Advertising on Your Site
• Ad Networks:
– Google’s AdSense
– Chitika
– BlogHer

• Ad Management Tools:
– Ad Rotate
– BuySell Ads
– Simple Ads Management (SAM)

Ad Management Using the
SAM Plugin for WordPress
• The main component of the ad plugin is
the “Ads Place.”
• Each Ads Place is a container for
multiple advertisements of the same
size/shape.
• The Ads Place is where you set the
rotation for multiple ads that appear in
the same place on your site, but
despite its name it doesn’t have
anything to do with the actual
placement of the ads on the webpage.

Ads Places (Simple Ads Manager)

Set the size of the ads appearing
in this Ads Place:
• Standard sizes from
dropdown
• Custom Sizes
Set the “patch” that should
display if you have no active ads
in your rotation.

Going Social
• Social Media Channel Integration
– Allowing visitors to Follow, Like, Connect, +1, etc.
on your site
– Sharing Facebook status updates, Tweets, Pins,
etc. on your site (and vice versa)

• Discussion/Commenting
• Sharing Related Content

Social Media Integration
• Display your social activities with plugins:
–
–
–
–
–
–

Rotating Tweets / MP Tweet List
Facebook (official plugin)
Google+
Pinterest
Simply Instagram
Linked In

• Or use an integrated solution, like Social
Sharing Toolkit

Discussions / Commenting
• Everything you can do with Posts you can do
with Comments:
– RSS Feeds
– Social sharing

• Other things you might want to do:
– Limit length, extend with smileys, allow ratings,
disallow links, send automated “thank you’s”

• Disqus

The Disqus Discovery Box
Organic Discovery: Content
recommendations are either
• Specific to your site
• From other sites that are using
Disqus
Promoted Discovery:
Recommendations point to content
that Disqus advertising partners
pay to distribute in relevant places.
You earn a revenue share from
Disqus for each click on a promoted
content link.

Related Content
•
•
•
•

YARPP (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin)
Link Within
Outbrain
nRelate
• Super easy to use with flexible options
• Better for SEO (does not direct users
back to their own site before
delivering requested content)
• Additional add-ons to deliver “Most
Popular” and “Flyout” content

Display Widgets
Something simple that makes life so sweet:
• By default, “Hide on Checked” is selected
with no boxes checked, so all current
widgets will continue to display on all
pages.
• Either include/exclude widget from pages
or posts, or by category or on special pages
(archives, search results, etc.)
• Helps you avoid creating multiple sidebars
and keeps the sidebars clean.

Integrating Newsletter Sign-Up
•
•
•
•

Constant Contact
Emma
Vertical Response
MailChimp

MailChimp Plugin for WordPress

MailChimp Plugin for WordPress
http://wordpress.org/plugins/mailchimp-widget/

[shortcodes]
• WordPress Shortcodes
• Column Shortcodes
• Shortcodes Ultimate

Shortcodes Ultimate
•
•
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Tabbed Content
Callout Boxes
Pull Quotes
Spoilers
Columned Text
Google Maps
Tables
Highlighted Text

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Accordions
Dividers
Lists
Buttons
Google Docs
Sliders
Carousels
Private Content

Free

Commercial

• Try as many as you
want.

• Are supported by the
theme author.

• Generally not
supported by author.

• Not necessarily better
than free themes.

• Thousands from
WordPress.org/themes

• Sometimes have too
many features.

Are you going to
customize your theme?

Beware
Option-itis!

My Custom CSS

Where to learn CSS: http://www.w3schools.com/css/

WordPress Gallery Plugins
• NextGen Gallery
• Grand Media Gallery
• Lightbox Gallery

Embed media
from other sources

Embed media
from other sources
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•
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Youtube
Vimeo
Hulu
Tweets
Flickr
Instagram

•
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PollDaddy
SlideShare
Rdio
SoundCloud
Spotify
More...

Adding Categories to Media
http://wordpress.org/plugins/media-categories-2/

WordPress Best
Practices & Security

Akismet

• Requires WordPress.com Account
• Learns to recognize “Spam” and “Ham”
based on input from millions of users.

WordPress Security
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•
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Keep everything up to date.
Don’t use “admin” user.
Use a secure password.
Create a non-administrator user.
Use a secure password.
Practice safe browsing.
Plugins like “Better WP Security”

SEO (with WordPress)
• Basic SEO concepts
• Keyword research: How to select effective
keywords
• Keyword implementation: Understand the purpose
of each implementation location, and learn how to
use the Yoast SEO plugin
• Learn More About SEO (Free Tools and Resources)

Search Engines vs. Users
Search Engine Optimization
Search Experience Optimization
Search Engines

Users

Love content.

Love content.

Use keywords to generate listings.

Use keywords to find information.

Can’t access a poorly designed site.

Hate browsing a poorly designed site.

Everything you do on a website should have the dual purpose
of satisfying USERS and search engines (yes, in that order!)

SEO is OK with Google
Many people confuse search engine optimization with spamming. Spamming and SEO
are two totally different things. A recent announcement from Google contains a
statement about “white hat” SEO:
Effective search engine optimization can make a site more crawlable and make
individual pages more accessible and easier to find…
“White hat” search engine optimizers often improve the usability of a site, help
create great content, or make sites faster, which is good for both users and
search engines.

Watch Google’s Matt Cutts talk about SEO on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
feature=player_embedded&v=BS75vhGO-kk

How Do I Improve My Ranking?
On-Site Factors:
• What you say about yourself
– Keywords you use on your website

Off-Site Factors:
• What other websites say about you
– Inbound Links (and words they use in the link)

On-Site Factors for SEO
1. What keywords to use?
– Targeted (to a specific product/service/audience)
– Traffic-bearing (Average Search Volume [ASV])

2. Where to put them on your site?
– Page Titles & Meta-Description Tags…

Keyword Research
What keywords to use?
– Targeted (to a specific product/service/audience)
– Traffic-bearing (Average Search Volume [ASV])
– Not ridiculously competitive

TIPS!
• Brainstorm, but keep it simple.
• Don’t spread yourself too thin.
• Be specific about what you’re selling.

Keyword Research
• Google’s Keyword Planner
• Google Insights for Search
• Google Trends Keyword
Demand Prediction
• Microsoft Advertising
Intelligence
• Wordtracker’s Free Basic
Keyword Demand

Implementation Locations
Where should I use keywords?
1.

Domain name (http://www.YourDomainName.com/)

2.

Sub-page URLs (permalinks):
(http://www.YourDomainName.com/YourPageName)

3.

Title

4.

Meta-Description

5.

Headers (h1, h2, h3; descending importance)

6.

Internal links

7.

Website copy (written content on the page)

8.

Bold text

Keyword Implementation Rules
• Don’t overdo it!
• Only target 2-3 phrases per page on site
• Don’t make text read like you are spamming!
We’re a coffee shop in New York City and our coffee shop in New
York City serves good coffee.

Title & Meta-Description
• Title is essentially #1 for keywords
• Meta-Description relatively low on the list

TIP!
Unless your business name is a widely
recognized brand, keep it out of the Title, but
include it first in the Meta-Description

Headers
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5
Descending weight on SEO
• h1 – One of the main keywords of page
• h2, h3 – secondary/topical keywords
• h4, h5 – not crucial to use/embed

Website Copy
• At least one paragraph of copy should be
found on each page
• Keyword Density
– Not imminently important

• Learn how to write copy for the web

Keywords for Images
• File name
…“whitesalmon-rafting.jpg”

• Alt attribute
• Shows when image cannot be
loaded
• Tooltip text
alt = “Rafters plunging down Husum
Falls on the White Salmon River”

• Title attribute
title = “Husum Falls on the
White Salmon River”

<img src=“/images/whitesalmonrafting.jpg” width=“250” height=“150”
alt=“Rafters plunging down Husum Falls
on the White Salmon River” title=
“Husum Falls on the White Salmon
River”>

Internal Links
• Can be helpful within the copy, especially at the
end of articles
• Should not be overused
• Should have the same anchor text as your main
navigation or inbound links
This is where a “related posts” plugin comes in handy:

Update Services
Alert update services (“ping”) that you have new content.
The WordPress Codex keeps a list of valid ping services that
you can cut and paste into your blog’s settings:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Update_Services

Advanced Features
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Robots Meta configuration
Canonical
Breadcrumbs
Permalink clean up
XML Sitemaps
RSS enhancements
Edit your robots.txt and .htaccess

Google Analytics

Yoast: http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/
Ran.ge: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-google-analytics/
Alin Marcu: http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-dashboard-for-wp/

Off-site SEO
How Links Affect Rankings
Search engines currently base relevancy primarily on linkage
patterns. Who links to you, and how they link to you, are what
determines where your site will rank for competitive search
queries.
• Link building: directories, link exchange, articles, press
releases, advertising, organic
http://training.seobook.com/link-building
• Social Interaction
• Public Relations
• Branding

Learn More About SEO
SEOMoz’s Beginniners Guide to SEO
- Chapter 5: Keyword Research
Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF)
Yoast’s SEO for WordPress Plugin
- The Definitive Guide to Higher Rankings for WordPress Sites
Google & SEO-Friendly Page Titles (Video)
CopyBlogger Copywriting 101
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO

http://searchengineland.com/guide/seo

WordPress Author Roles
• Administrator
• Editor
• Author
• Contributor
• Subscriber

Administrator
• Complete control over the site.
• Can change site settings, themes,
widgets, menus, users, categories, etc.
• Generally only one Admin per site (but
can have more than one).

Editor
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•
•
•

Edit/publish/delete any post/page.
Manage post categories/tags.
Moderate comments.
Can NOT control widgets/menus.

• Used as a “supervisory” role,
moderating posts by other authors.

Author
Can:
• Edit/publish/delete their own posts.
• Upload images/media.
Can NOT:
• Create/publish pages.
• Edit/publish other authors posts.

Contributor
Can:
• Create/edit their own posts before they
are published.
• Submit post for Editor review.
Can NOT:
• Publish their own posts.
• Upload images/media.
• Edit their posts after an Editor publishes.

Subscriber
Can:
• Comment on posts/pages.
Can NOT:
• Do anything else.

Plugins for
Multiple Author Blogs

Thank You!
www.tadpole.cc
hello@tadpole.cc
Twitter: @TadpoleCC
Andy Christian
@andrew_cpht

Melissa Cahill
@panoptic_nyc

WordPress Workshop with Tadpole, SATW 2013 Conference

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