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WordPress SEO Content for Local Business.

WordPress SEOSo how do you get visitors to come to your new WordPress website?

Make the time to write up your WordPress Content  factoring in  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) .

You can put a website link on your business card,  network by word of mouth, create a FaceBook page which references your website,  put the link on your bumper sticker and  use it on LinkedIn.  Why not try to use Google’s search engine?

There are many ways to network news about your new website, but the topic here is Google Search Engine Optimization. This effort will also help with Microsoft Bing  but the focus of your efforts must be on Google. There are a number of good guides on the Internet on the technical aspects of WordPress Search Engine Optimization. There are WordPress plugins to help you analyze and improve your content.  I have my favorite plugins.

Content is King when based on a sound keyword strategy.

Google does not publish the method used to index the content of websites. Try to look at your site content as Google will see it.  In a Chrome browser you can turn Text Mode On to view only the text on your site which is what Google will use to index what your site is about. Writing your content should be an iterative editorial process as well as constantly adding new content to let Google know your site is vital.

Be mindful of your keyword strategy for Google SEO when you write website content.   First you need to decide what keywords or key phrases describe what you site is about.  Ensure that people using these search keywords will find what they are looking for on your website. Then write about these Keywords in your website text and elaborate more about them in your blog. WordPress is a great platform to allow you to express yourself for all to see. Allow your content to draw visitors to your content.

However,  it is not easy to be confident that your content meets the  best SEO practices.   With the plugin I provide, you get feedback on how you are doing with Readability, Keyword Use and other factors.   Turn the indicators green and you have done well.   

SEO on Google is very competitive .

A nation scope is probably going to be more competitive than a local scope. Some pay AdWords to list their websites at the *top* of the search result pages.  It is still well worth the effort to create good content  designed to draw users to have a look at your content. This may help you focus on just what you want your website to be about.  Search for your Keywords competitors Google.  Refine your keywords based on your competition. Choosing keywords is important and should be based on your knowledge and experience in your topic. You may have better phrases than your competition. And yes, there are ways to determine the popularity of keywords used in Google searches.

The broader your audience the more competative. There are a lot more people trying to sell widgets nationally than locally. Research your local competition. For a local scope you have the advantage of using Google My Business(GMB). I can help you promote the popularity of your GMB listing. Also, it may just be that you draw people to your Facebook page and website with GMB SEO.

Click Conversion

You need to consider your site’s ability to convert clicks to customers.   The site needs to look professional, load quickly and have a clear message.  You need a Call-To-Action on your home page.  This is “content intended to induce a viewer, reader, or listener to peform a specific act, typically taking the form of an instruction or directive (e.g. buy now or click here )”. What do you want the visitor to your website to do? There are many examples of a Call-to-Action of the internet, so here is just one Call-To-Action.

Project Management Professional, PMP

Get your website project done by a Pro.  Need a link to this blog topic.

Read about website Security and Performance
Read about Website Project Management

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Gutenberg

Preparation for the Gutenberg Editor and WordPress 5.0.

As I read the posts I will continue to add some material on Gutenberg editor to my Link Library.

 

It seems best to approach is to the use the Classic Editor plugin with the Gutenberg Editor as an option. 

WordPress 4.9.5, TwentySeventeen Theme and PHP 7.2.4

Upgrading to PHP 7.2.4 has been troubled by Server 500 errors within the admin dashboard.  The WordPress upgrade to 4.9.5 with fixes for PHP 7.2 along with a TwentySeventeen upgrade to V1.5 not gone well.  Based on some user experiences I reinstalled the theme when the upgrade did not fix the 500 errors.   This has reduced the errors but they have not gone away.  Into this mix I’ve added the Classic Editor plugin.   

Install on Sandbox site.

I have added the Classic and Gutenberg editors to my Sandbox WordPress site. So far they seem to work fine.

Learn to use Gutenberg

Take a class or two on Gutenberg so that I can get up to speed and help clients make the transition.

Plan to move to TwentyEighteen theme.

I have no idea what this theme

Ensure plugins are working

Upgrade user sites.

Drop the Classic Editor

 

WordPress Hosting

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WordPress Hosting

What to look for in WordPress Hosting

WordPress Hosting
A Solid State Drive will deliver content over 10 times faster than HDD.  If you have not experienced this on your PC you gotta give it a try.

Google SEO requires an SSL certificate. There is no performance impact for adding this kind of Security. There are lots of solutions, but I like using cPanel AUTOSSL with Commodo or Easy SSL. This should not be a costly addition to your website security.

WordPress sites need to use a caching plugin. There are many free alternatives. I favor Rocket which is listed in the Link Library.

Security is as important as performance.

Hosting Technical Support

I like to think I can do everything myself, but time and time again I find myself dependent upon solid WordPress Hosting technical expertise. Everything is fine, until it is not. That’s when you need good support.

When you have added or updated a plugin and things are not working you can try to isolate this yourself. With a good FTP tool you can disable all your plugins slowly add them back until the problem presents itself again. When you have are using a theme like twentyseventeen, the plugin author should be most willing to sort out your issue.

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Tools on the Web

Link Library

Categories:


The Library:

Submit suggestions:

 

Chrome Inspect

Pick Your Plugins

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Commercial WordPress Websites

Commercial site branding

A commercial brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer.

What is so special about setting up a commercial website?

Hosting

You want to pick a UNIX hosting company that has a solid path to grow as your commercial site takes off.   Ensure the VPS server capacity can grow to meet your needs.  Look at the dedicated server offerings to be sure they have a path you can feel comfortable.  Make use of the hosting company’s support tools to be sure they are responsive and helpful.

Security

security
Buy a Sucuri  Security Pro Plan for Firewall, Monitoring and malware removal.  This will ensure you can dial back access to R/O from countries like Turkey, Russia and China.  It will allows a number of other access and security controls.  The CDN will improve performance too.  They will also provide SSL.  Their technicians will do most of the setup for you, so that is very convenient. 

Try to avoid the risk of retaining customer Personal Identifiable Information on your site.   Use something like PayPal to collect money.

Performance

Use website performance tools to keep a log of performance indicators as you develop the site to ensure you keep a quick load time around 1 Second or less.

Build your Brand into your site.

Decide what makes your your offering unique?  What identifies your brand? How will you create  trust and good will with your brand? Develop a look and logo to develop your brand.   Develop a call to action to ensure visitors know what you want them to do.  Develop a way to list your products that makes you unique.

Know your online competition.   View their Google Local Business listing.  Search Google for your products.  Learn what people are using in Google to find your products.   You are going to build your brand to stand apart with the products of choice.

Use a default WordPress theme such as TwentySeventeen.  All plugins need to work on such themes, they have no choice.   That includes your commerce plugin.  Start with a fully compatible theme.

Pick Your Plugins, view the Link Library

Build the Basic Site Elements

Contact Us form so users can email or maybe set up a chat helpline.
About Us to tell about the company and your team.
Blogs or posts to provide regular articles about your products, your industry and anything that might interest your clients.
Take your time to learn how to SEO your page and post content.  Learn how to use a plugin like Yoast to guide you in your content.

Getting Ready to Launch

Set up your Google Local Business page.   Promote it list ahead of your competition.  This is how you will invite traffic.

Be sure to have someone objectively walk through your website functionality.  Someone to think of the things you forgot or did not notice.  Someone who will look at the site like one of your clients.

 

 

 

 

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Pick Your Plugins

What plugins do you want?

Infrastructure

Child Them Configurator
Google Maps Pro
Gravity Forms
Header and Footer Scripts
Ultimate Branding
WP-Rocket
WP-Smush Pro
WPtouch Pro

Backup

Snapshot Pro
cpanel backup

Security

Ithemes Security Pro
Sucuri Security

Anti-SPAM

Akismet
Anyi-Splog

Commerce

Woocomerce

Links

Link Library

SEO

Yoast SEO Premium

Social Media

Social Warefare
Floating Social

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Chrome Inspect

Using Chrome Inspect

I use Chrome as my default browser especially when working in WordPress.
>Appearances> Additional CSS> then right click and open Chrome Inspect to see the html and CSS for each element.    This is how I see what CSS is impact the look of a page.  Then I can modify the CSS with the Additional CSS window.

From the Chrome browser, you can Inspect any page you pull up in the browser to see the inner workings of the HTML and CSS.

More about Chrome Inspect

Chrome Development Tools

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Professional Website Project Management, PMP

PMP Project Management ProfessionalWhat is a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification?

The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI) is  internationally recognized. There are currently some 750K active PMP certified individuals worldwide.

What is a project?

A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.

The development of your website is a project.  Ensure tasks designed to accomplish a singular goal.  So a project team often includes people who don’t usually work together – sometimes from different organizations and across multiple geographies.

Why a Professional Project Management (PMP) for your website project?

First of all, you want your WordPress website project  started and organized.   How did this website effort get so off target?  As a result,  you will not be satisfied with the results.   In addition, focus on what is most important on the critical path to completion.    Know who is is doing  what.   Are they making progress with the work?

    Project management processes:

  • Initiating Request for Proposal
  • Planning
  • Executing
  • Monitoring and Controlling
  • Closing

Project management brings a unique focus shaped by the goals, resources and schedule of each project.  There are any number of ways to run a collaborative website project. 

Email VS Trello for small projects

So while email is an useful tool,  has the thought crossed your mind that using emails to keep track of activities on open tasks and issues is confusing?   Ever wonder what happened to that email status request you made?  Did it end up ignored in a overflowing inbox?   Most of all,  you can’t track the history and progress on an issue?

My recent efforts have been to use Trello’s free boards, lists, and cards to organize and prioritize tasks and issues for your website project.  Because Trello tracks individual tasks and issues checking status is easy.   It is easy to add an assigned task.  Finally, the owner of the task provides progress updates and can automatically send an email with the latest task status.

Other BLOG topics:

WordPress SEO Content for Local Business.

Website security and performance

Commercial WordPress Websites

Gutenberg

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Website security and performance

WordPress Security Be faster and more secure than your competition.  First of all. establishing multiple layers of security is part of the build process for a WordPress site.  Mitigating risk requires ongoing monitoring of alerts and a good backup/recovery scheme.   Good performance is an ongoing effort which improves the user experience.  To be sure, no one wants to spend time on a slow website.

UNIX Server Hosting

UNIX is the most secure web hosting operating system.  It is important to mitigate risk by working with a good hosting company to help ensure the  UNIX Virtual Private Server server is secure.  VPS is more secure that shared hosting.   This includes AutoSSL, firewall, and brute force login protections, malware scans, etc.  Google considers the use of SSL to be important for ranking.   cPanel offers a number of security tips.

Because NGINX is run on the server, it has advantages over WordPress plugins as good performance tool.  For example, it can help with the performance of the ADMIN user interface performance.

UNIX-based hosting is more stable, performs faster and more compatible than Windows-based hosting.   WordPress works well on UNIX servers.

Website performanceFor many sites it is appropriate to add an additional layer of security with the performance of a Content Delivery Network(CDN).     The benefits of increased control over security outweigh the small monthly cost.

WordPress Security

Configuring WordPress  in a secure way does not impact those using the site.   This can accomplished by the use of a plugin such as Defender or iThemes Security Pro. These tools provide regular malware scans with security related alerts.

Many are not aware that bots identify WordPress sites to attempt hundreds of logins a day using common user names and passwords.  When configured properly such attempts can be greatly reduced.

Strong user passwords and appropriate user role assignments is basic.   Using a two factor login is one of the best security features.

Backups are essential.   Regular cPanel full backups provide a way to fully recover a website.  The SnapShot  plugin takes backups on an automated scheduled basis.

Also important is to keep the software current.  This means updating WordPress and plugins on a regular basis.  

Performance is an ongoing effort

Caching your content improves site load times.  A CDN caches the site to improve end user performance especially when delivering large amounts of data such as images.   Furthermore, Rocket is a good WordPress cache plugin.

While there are a number of tools to objectively measure website performance, they each provide different results.   As a result, you will want to track historical performance trends separately for each tool.   Building a history of such measurements helps identify and avoid changes that cause  slow performance.   Consequently, you can measure the before and after impact of changes such as the addition of NGINX.  Automatically compressing images added to the Media Library helps improve performance.  SMUSH is an example of a plugin that helps automate media image compression.

Read about Google Search Engine Optimization
Read about Website Project Management