Editor's Notes
- #2: Categories and tags are there to organise your content, they¡¯re powerful tools when writing blogs and can help you in the search engines and can also show visitors other related content.
- #3: Categories:Categories are like chapters of a book, or pages of a magazine, style, make up, gossip etc.Tags:Use tags for specific topics, especially topics that you aren¡¯t likely to write many articles about.For example if you run an accountancy practice, you may use ¡°small business advice¡± as a category and have a number of tags that are more specific to the content of the blog post such as minimum wage.
- #4: Explain back end and front endScreen options give you the option to show certain things on your pages such as comment forms & Author information, trackbacks (when others link to your posts) in the frontend side of your site and gives you access to backend options for plugins which you¡¯d like to use within blog posts (such as Yoast SEO & Featured Images)
- #5: Settings:There are loads of different settings, General and Writing are probably best left to your web designer.Reading Settings:You can choose if you wish to show your latest posts on your front page. Depending on how your site is laid out, you may have a ¡°home page¡± and want to keep blogs to a blog section, so you can set your frontpage to home and posts page to blog.You can also control the number of posts and if to show the full post or a summary.
- #6: Privacy settings:Always allow search engines to index this site, unless you are having it developed, in which case don¡¯t, or install ¡°maintenance mode¡± to run while you work on the site.
- #7: Permalink settings:
- #8: Akismet ¨C plugin that gets rid of spam automatically, you have to sign up for a code to use it ¨C it comes autoinstalled with WPSecure Wordpress - Adds index.php plugin-directory (virtual) so you cannot read what¡¯s in directories.Removes unnessesary files, windows live writer, and core update information for non-admins,Removes version on URLs from scripts and stylesheets only on frontend,Blocks any bad queries that could be harmful to your WordPress websiteMaintenance mode - Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end.Yoast ¨C SEO plugin ¨C which we¡¯ll go into more detail in a bitWP E-commerce ¨C Highly customisable, easy to install online shop plugin for Wordpress.Google XML sitemaps - ?generates a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blogContact form7 - manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam.MailChimp Mailing list -quickly and easily add a signup form for your MailChimp list as a widget?Google analytics for wordpress ¨C allows you to setup google analytics on your wordpress blog so that you can track your website¡¯s traffic.
- #9: Difference between plugins and widgets- A plugin is a collection of files that either change the way WordPress functions, or adds/removes functionality.Plugins are written (mostly) in the PHP-language and they are stored in wp-content/plugins directory. These plugins can be activated or deactivated through the WordPress admin panel by the blog admin.- Widgets are placeholders or user interface elements that present data or an user interface to the user.Sidebar widgets can be reordered, renamed, enabled or disabled to change the looks, feel and contents of the user interface. Some plugins present their own user interface as a sidebar widget. Sometimes plugins provide optional widgets (such as polls widget of wp-polls, or the language chooser widget of the Gengo plugin). Sometimes plugins have no widgets.
- #11: Get in pairs, take it in turns to talk about your business, and the person listening should make notes of possible keywords or phrases relating to your business. The keywords should be what you would search for in order to find your partners business.Then with the whole group we can go through what each person has and see if anyone else has anything to add.
- #13: Your aim should be to have all green yes¡¯s and preferably a 1 or more in the bracketsMake sure everything you write makes sense. Pick your Focus keyword, which should be a specific word which sums up the post. Make sure the word is also within the SEO title and meta description.The meta description should be an overview of the post and pack it with your keywords.
- #14: This is what you should be aiming for, mainly green ticks and a few ¡°ok¡±s but no reds
- #15: To get yourself and your blog more coverage try guest blogging on other peoples sites, Toni & Kim have done this, but the more places you get yourself the better. Obviously stick to blogs that are in the similar industry to your business.Like wise getting others to write for your own blog can help raise your profile. Guest bloggers will likely tell others that they¡¯ve written for you thus doubling your efforts. If you can get a high profile person even better!
- #16: One of the best things about guest blogging is being able to link back to your site. When you do, make sure that as well as linking the company name that you also link keywords throughout your blog. Obviously don¡¯t go too crazy, perhaps just put your company name and then key word after it ie. WildFire Media, Web design manchester.
- #17: There are two parts to backing up your WordPress site:?Database?and?Files. Your WordPress site consists of the following:WordPress Core InstallationPluginsThemesImages and FilesJavascript scripts, PHP scripts, and other code filesAdditional Files and Static Web PagesMost hosts back up the entire server, including your site, but it takes time to request a copy of your site from their backups. You need to learn how to back up your own site files and restore them. Here are some methods.I wont go into the intricacies of saving your database because many of you will have webdesigners who can do this for you. But for those who are a bit more tech savvy
- #19: While you watch tv, sunny days take a pad outside and make notes, before bed. Try and set aside an hour or so a week where you can do this. Treat it like exercise, make sure you do it as much as you can.