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GEN34 : Take Control of Your Website: Putting Wordpress to Work for You
Amanda O’Brien
CPE Credit
• In order to receive CPE credit for this session you must be present for the entire session. – Session code: <Presenter enter session code here>– Recommended CPE credit = 1 <Presenter changes this to 1
for 60 min sessions, 1.5 for 90 min sessions, 1.5 for 75 min sessions and 2 for 120 min sessions>
– Delivery Method = Group Live– Field of Study = Specialized Knowledge and Applications
• Visit the Continuing Professional Education kiosks to enter CPE credit during the conference.
Introduction
• This presentation will be available online after the conference. You will receive an email for the Insights session Website approximately 4 weeks after Insights.
• amanda@hallme.comBooth 517
Amanda O’Brien
VP of Marketing
Hall Web Services
Learning Objectives• After participating in this session, you will be able to:
– Know the benefits of a CMS/Wordpress website
– How much content your website needs
– How to customize your Wordpress site
– Important Plugins to make your site work for you
Benefits of a Wordpress site• Easy to use
• Each entry is a new page
• Great for SEO
• Categorizes information
• No need for web developer to update content
• Great compliment to a business website
• Can be skinned to look like your website
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeltelling/292642699/
Other Popular CMS Systems• Joomla
– Open source– Great for designers
• Drupal– Open source– More developer friendly (not necessarily user friendly)– Ready for more hand coding
Blog Benefits• Social Media Hub
• More personal companion to your website
• Easy to update and organize
• WYSIWYG editors make formatting easier
• Gets your website and company found
CMS/Blog Downfalls• Time commitment
• Checks and balances
• More responsible for knowing SEO
• Wordpress easier to use but not as customizable
Things to Consider Before• What are your goals?
• Strategy
• Allowing comments
• Who is going to write?
• How often?
Succeeding at Blogging• Provide valuable content
• Create an editorial calendar
• Be consistent
• Define and stick to your niche
• Read other blogs
• Mix it up (video, images)
• Write what you know and care about
Setting Goals• Sell more stuff
• Establish yourself as expert
• Brand Awareness
• Customer Service
Measure Trek to Those Goals• Business Goals not blog metrics
• Website Traffic
• Traffic from Blog to Product Pages
• Blog only offering (discount codes)
• Brand mentions on social media sites and other blogs
• Trackbacks
• Comments
• Lower Customer Service Calls
How much content is enough?• Search engines read words
• Keyword searches are getting more complex
• More you update, more search engines come back
• Being consistent is more important
• 1 a week and measure effectiveness
Lets Get Technical
Getting Started• Domain (Dreamhost one-click Wordpress Option)
• FTP (File transfer protocol)
• Theme or create a custom theme (clothes for your blog)
• Blogging for you or to be found?
• What happens between web visit and a sale?
Free Themes vs. Pay vs. Create• Free doesn’t mean good
• Bad code makes it hard for search engines to read your website
• Free usually means lack of control
• Create – need lots of technical skills
Thesis
Now What?
Get Found and Make Subscribing Easy• SEO
– Key words– Google Adwords free keyword tool– Optimize content
• Categories
• Email subscribers– Less tech savvy
• RSS subscribers
Plugins• Akismet
• SEO Title Tag
• Sociable
• Disqus
Questions?
Summary• A Wordpress site, blog or CMS may be a viable solution
• Inexpensive
• Easy to update
• Need content and in-house resources
• Define your nich, position yourself as an expert
• Try plugins to make it easier
Your Feedback is Important to Us!• Please complete the evaluation form for this session.
• Your feedback helps us improve future sessions and presentation techniques.
• Please include your session code on the evaluation form: <presenter enters session code here>
• Contact Information: <Presenter enters contact information here, if desired, or deletes this bullet.>
• Thank you for your participation.
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