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.
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