integrity: wordpress case study
DESCRIPTION
Detailed case study presented by Ed Morrissey during the 2011 St. Louis WordCamp on how interactive agency Integrity, www.integritystl.com, used WordPress to redesign www.explorestlouis.com for the St. Louis CVC. Answers the question whether WordPress has moved beyond a simple blogging platform.TRANSCRIPT
Explore St. Louis Case StudyUsing WordPress as CMS
Ed MorrisseyPartner & Chief Creative Officer
[email protected] www.integritystl.com
Agenda
–Introduction/Overview–ExploreStLouis.com
•About •Goals of Site•Decision to use WordPress•Features and Plug-Ins•Lessons Learned
–Questions & Answers
2
Nice to Meet You
–Partner/CCO with Integrity–Been here since the beginning–Rode the dot com craze–Early adopter of open source
3
EMorrissey
About the St. Louis CVC
–Founded in 1909 –Mission = Sell St. Louis–Operates the America’s Center
•502K sq feet, 80 meeting rooms •Edward Jones Dome •Ferrara Theatre•Ballroom
4
ExploreStLouis.com
–Increase visitor demand & spending of visitors, meeting planners, travel professionals, media & local citizens•5M annual visits – 3M uniques•200+ pages plus directories•Online bookings•Multiple databases•Legacy systems
5
Previous Site
6
Goals of Redesign
–Develop a site that appeals to visitors, meeting planners, travel professionals, media and local citizens
•Build on the brand•Overhaul user flows •Enhance/improve SEO•Modern conventions•Integrate social media•Ability to self publish•Inexpensive
•Secure, scalable, code-friendly, extendable
7
What to Do?
–Build?–Buy?
–Borrow?
8
Open source…
9
…A religion
That’s ridiculous.
We geeks just want to write
good code & we all know open
source is nothing more than…
There are discussions
whether open source is political.
Quick ComparisonFeature
Ease of Hosting and Installation
Ease of Setup: Simple Site
Ease of Setup: Complex Site
Ease of Use: Content Editors
Ease of Use: Site Administrator
Graphical Flexibility
Accessibility and Search Engine Optimization
Structural Flexibility
User Roles and Workflow
Community/Web 2.0 Functionality
Extending and Integrating
Security
Support/Community Strength
10
Quick ComparisonFeature
Ease of Hosting and Installation
Ease of Setup: Simple Site
Ease of Setup: Complex Site
Ease of Use: Content Editors
Ease of Use: Site Administrator
Graphical Flexibility
Accessibility and Search Engine Optimization
Structural Flexibility
User Roles and Workflow
Community/Web 2.0 Functionality
Extending and Integrating
Security
Support/Community Strength
11
Why WordPress?
–Free is good
12
Plug-Ins
13
Dashboard
14
Large site
Large site
Lots of content groups
Lots of content groups
Custom Fields
15
Fine control
of layout
Fine control
of layout
Custom Post
16
Custom taxonomies
Custom taxonomies
Widgets
17
Grouping - modularity of widgets
Grouping - modularity of widgets
Results
18
Lessons Learned
–WordPress/PHP does not run well on Windows Server 2003 edition with IIS 6– Be open to using 3rd party host
– Content is King– There’s no need to reinvent the wheel
– Most plug-ins require customization– Self-publishing is a cultural shift
– Whoever inputs content must have understanding of how the system works
– Hidden cost– Evolution not a revolution– The right team can execute within WordPress
whatever functionality we dream up
19
Extra Slides
21
Mobile Pages
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WordPress and SEO
– For beginners, it works out-of-the-box– Advanced plug-ins allow fine-tuning of
everything– Automatically optimizes your titles for search
engines–Generates META tags automatically–Override title and set META description– Support for Custom Post Types– Advanced Canonical URLs
• the process of picking the best URL when there are several choices
– Fine tune Page Navigational Links– Built-in API so plugins/themes can access and
extend functionality– SEO Integration for WP e-Commerce sites– Avoid duplicate content found on blogs 23