Download Report

WordPress Web
Development
An introduction to small business site
design using the popular CMS platform.
What We Will Cover
• How to brainstorm for a project
• How to choose the domain that is best for SEO or
vanity or perhaps both.
• How to register for a free WordPress account and
start using that site
• How to purchase a domain and install WordPress on
it.
• How to customize a self-hosted WordPress
• How to add plugins and which ones to use.
What is WordPress?
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48% share of top 100 blogs in the World
Free and open source
Professional paid themes (themeforest.net)
CMS or Content Management System
Based on PHP and MySQL
Plugin and theme architecture
Categories, tags and permalink structure
Case Use for WordPress
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Site needs updating frequently.
User control of the site is necessary.
Rapid versus custom development.
Easy access to features through plugins
Brainstorm
• What does the project need?
• When does it need to be done by?
• How will the general visitor use the site?
• If a customer searches for the site, what
keywords would bring them to it?
Domain Decisions
First step is to pick a domain:
• Choose according to keywords if SEO
is important
www.webdesignclassbillings.com
• Choose according to vanity if SEO is
not important
www.wdcbillings.com
Domain Decisions Cont.
• Pick both SEO friendly and vanity
domains if appropriate
• .coms are the best for SEO value and
commercial marketing value
• .net, .co, *.io can be good alternatives
to the .com (*.io exotic Indian Ocean)
• Use Fatwallet.com to get good deals
on domains
Install WordPress - Free
Version
• Register for a free account and
choose .wordpress.com extension
name
• Click the “Change your blog
description or permissions” button to
launch the Dashboard.
• Change the site title and slogan
• Adjust the time zone settings to UTC-7
Choose Theme
• Click on Appearance on main menu
• Browse and select theme (try
searching for keywords like colors or
use cases)
• Change pages by deleting generic
entry (if necessary) and adding in all
the pages for the site in order using 0
base array inside page options
Blogging
• Click on posts and delete any generic entries (if
necessary). Click “Add New” button.
• Title the post and click tab to go into main body
• Notice how the permalink structure generates
off of what was typed as the title (you may
want to change these for better SEO)
• Add content in the body, including images
and/or videos using both the visual and text
editors.
• Choose a category for the post by clicking
“Add new category” typing it in and submitting.
Blogging Cont.
• Choose tags according to keyword
connections between posts. (Try not to have
too many 1-post tags)
• Hit the publish button and go to the website
to check out your work.
• Make any necessary edits (revision process is
part of any good blog).
Not Custom? No Worry!
• Self hosted WordPress sites allow
customization of the entire site code.
• By editing the header.php, footer.php,
page.php and post.php files the entire site
can be switched around, changed up and
customized.
• User accounts can be created so that
customers cannot access these core files,
but can still interact and add to the content
on the site.
Install WordPress – Paid
• Choose domain and make purchase
(recommend Godaddy or Bluehost).
• Purchase hosting account. (try
Fatwallet Godaddy coupons for great
deals on hosting)
• Commercial applications can benefit
from premium private servers as they
are much less prone to hacking.
Install WordPress – Paid
Cont.
• Add domain to the hosting account by
launching hosting control panel
• -> hosted domain control panel
• -> add domain
• -> install in root if first domain in
account, install in named folder if it is
subsequent domain.
Wait…Now Install WP
• Wait 10-15 minutes for the hosting
account to propagate the domain over
to it.
• Now choose the WordPress install option
on the control panel.
• Fill in the details including:
• Name of domain to install on
• Username and password
• Hit install
Congratulations!
• WordPress should install in about 20-30
minutes.
Customize WordPress
• Dig into the code by clicking on Appearance
and then on Editor
• Here are all the PHP files that comprise the site
• Change the footer by clicking on footer.php
and making additions to the code.
• Change the header in header.php and so on…
• Add plugins and remove the garbage plugins
that come with the install (Godaddy’s,
WordPress welcome, Hello Dolly).
How To Add Plugins
• Click on “Plugins” and then on “Add new”
• Search for the function that you want to
achieve “slideshows” “widgets” etc.. Or
search by the name of the plugin.
• Check star ratings to make sure you have
the right plugin.
• Be wary of installing unrated plugins or too
many plugins as either of these can cause
crashing and unintended consequences.
Popular Plugins
• Contact Form 7 – solid contact form
creator
• Limit Login Attempts – protects blogs from
brute force attacks
• SEO Yoast – best search engine
optimization plugin on the market and
it’s free!
• Exclude pages – adds checkbox to
pages that easily toggles them in and out
of the main menu.
What We Covered
• How to brainstorm for a project
• How to choose the domain that is best for
SEO or vanity or perhaps both.
• How to register for a free WordPress
account and start using that site
• How to purchase a domain and install
WordPress on it.
• How to customize a self-hosted WordPress
• How to add plugins and which ones to use.
Questions?
Jophiel – SkyPoint Studios
#1 & #2 for SEO Billings