How to create “Awesome” WordPress Websites For Niche Organizations

Neha Gupta Goyal@nehagupt

Hello, World!• Web Developer at American Enterprise Institute• Have been working for “niche” organizations for the

past decade• Key to an awesome website: “TELL YOUR STORY”

• Small Businesses• Selling a product• Providing a seervice

• Nonprofits• Charities• Think tanks

Niche organizations

Make your “niche” website AWESOME

• Unique challenges of a niche organization• Needs of a niche organization’s websites• Using WordPress to create a website• Intro to WP-CLI

AGENDA

CHALLENGES• Smaller Budget• Limited Manpower• Employees wear

“Multiple Hats”• Revenue/ Raise Funds• Mission-driven

NONPROFITS

• Not for Profit• Advocacy• Drive

Donations

BUSINESSES

• For Profit• Service/

Product• Drive Sales up

Unique Challenges of “niche” organizations

• Understanding the goals of your organization• Understanding your audience• Develop a cohesive website strategy aligned with

business goals and mission

Overcoming the Challenges

Understanding the goals• What are your organization’s most important

goals?• What does success looks like?• Who is your audience?

Understanding your audience• What is important to your audience?• How does your audience access your website?• How does your audience interact with your

website?

• Clear and Consistent Branding• Front-end: Easy to find information and use functionality• Back-end: Easy to use and maintain• Mobile-friendly aka Responsive website• TELL YOUR “AWESOME” STORY

Cohesive Website Strategy

• Trusted by many organizations• Fastest growing CMS (~60% of the CMS market share*)• User-Friendly• Easy to install and maintain• Customizable

* Source: https://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/content_management

Meet “Awesome” WordPress

Components of WordPress

• Dashboard• Plugins• Media Library• Appearance • Theme

WordPress Theming

Custom WordPress Theme

• Categories• Broad grouping of content• Makes it easy for the user to find content• Hierarchical

• Tags• Index words• Not hierarchical

Taxonomy

Taxonomy

• Post Typeso Pageso Postso Custom Post Types

o Requires developer skills

Post Types

Advanced Custom Fields• Custom data/fields in the CMS• Multiple input types :

o WYSIWYGo Date Pickero Color Pickero Object Relationships

• Update plugins, configure multisite installs, and much more• Custom commands for Data migration • Syntax:

wp [command] [sub-command] Example - wp plugin update

Intro to WP-CLI

Keep In Mind• Website Security • Website Performance• Use categories and tags judiciously• Only Install Plugins that you actually need

YES, you can…build an AWESOME website

• Understanding your goals• Understanding your audience• Cohesive Website strategy• Tell your “AWESOME” story

Thank You• hello@nehagoyal.co• @nehagupt• Slides: nehagoyal.co/events

Resources1. WordPress Taxonomies: codex.wordpress.org/taxonomies2. Custom Post Types: codex.wordpress.org/post_types3. ACF: wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields4. WP CLI: developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands5. WordPress Starter Theme: github.com/levinteractive/wp-rye