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Building your Website with Word Press

Susu Wong, Tomo360Donato Dandreo, Compete Now

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Agenda • Introductions• What’s all the buzz about Word Press

– Why Word Press?• Marketing plan & What to consider • Best Practices • Nuts & Bolts of Word Press

– Themes– Usability – SEO– Plugins

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Why Word Press?

• Free blogging platform• No designing experience needed• Easy content management system • Simple e-Commerce integration• Fast installation• Simple and elegant themes

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Website Marketing Plan

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228324#ixzz2n7v40CY9

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Before you start…

• Domain name registration • Branded email address • Branding

– Design your logo and tagline• Hosting your website

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What to look for from a hosting provider

• Customer support 24x7• Guarantee uptime • How fast do they resolve customer’s tickets?• Backup• Platform (blogging?)• Watch for add-ons• Scalability • Exit Strategy

http://www.inc.com/guides/201104/10-things-to-look-for-in-a-web-hosting-service.htmlhttp://web-hosting-review.toptenreviews.com/

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Informational website

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Interactive website

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E-Commerce

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Best practices

• Value proposition and benefits• FAQs• Customers testimonials • Use videos • Easy navigation• Logo • Privacy policy• Payment Processing Seal

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Create great content

• Update with fresh content • Clear and concise titles • Create sharable content • Big and bold images go a long way • Optimize images with keyword captions

https://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/07/03/10-tips-for-driving-traffic-to-your-website-part-1

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Social Media Integration

• Blogging• Email marketing• Twitter• Facebook• Instagram • LinkedIn

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Call to Action (CTA)

• A call-to-action is an image, line of text or form that prompts your visitors, leads, and customers to take action. It is, quite literally, a "call" to take an "action."

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Call to Action

• Limited offers• Act now

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Call to action example

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Responsive design

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Tracking

• Install Google Analytics • Analyze traffic data• Free online google analytics online course

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Themes

• Simply stated, a theme dictates the design and functionality of your website without changing the basic WordPress software.

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Choosing a Theme

• Consider your goals • Review Websites You Like• View demos for themes with your goals in mind• Click through the pages for the theme• Evaluate the features the theme offers • Test the theme on your desktop and phone• View the ratings/comments

Where to go for a theme?• Themeforest.net ($40 - $60 per theme)• Themes Directory in WordPress (Free)

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Usability

• Why it’s important:– Users are impatient

• Common Issues – Website Load Times – Browser Compatibility Issues– Poor Navigation– Busy Content

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Speed Up Your Website

• If you don’t already have a website, pick a theme that loads fast

• Contact your host about it • Deactivate and Delete Unused Plugins • Install WP Super Cache• When possible, upload photos to the site that are already

resized

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Browser Compatibility Issues

• Check your website on– IE – Firefox– Chrome– Safari

• Enlist friends to review the website

• Check the website on your phone

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Improve Navigation

• Choose the order of pages– Home– About

• Overview• Testimonials

– Services• Service 1 • Service 2

– Contact• Questions• Make an Order

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Improve Navigation Cont.

• Setup Sidebar Sub-Pages Widget (BE Subpages Widget)

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Make your Content Scanable

• Descriptive headings above key areas

• Bullet points

• Short and Sweet

• Use Images

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Example

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SEO

• Install SEO by Yoast plugin for WordPress• The basics

– Optimized Pages– Sitemap Submitted to Google & Bing/Yahoo– Submit Your Website to Online Directories – Alternate Text for all Images – Well Organized Page Structure– Clean URLS – No Broken Links

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Sample SEO Optimized Page

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Further Analysis

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Recommended Plugins

• Events Management– Event Espresso– Events Manager

• E-Commerce – Marketpress (WPMUDEV.ORG)

• Content Management – Visual Composer

• Contact Forms– Jotform.com (Create and manage forms, use Embed Form to add to website)

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Susu Wongsusu@tomo360.com@tomo3603Facebook/Tomo360www.tomo360.com

Donato Dandreo ddandreo@competenow.bizhttp://startcompeting.com/

Questions?