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Copyright © 2010 Pleiades Publishing Services, Co. - http://PleiadesServices.com 1 Aus tin WordPress Meetup Best Practices Beginners Track - 08.03.10 Life After Installation

Word press meetup getting started

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The Austin WordPress Meetup August beginners track addressed how to actually use the WordPress functions to structure site navigation and how to begin building the site with the end in mind. We addressed how to use Categories and Tags to build the 'silo' navigation structure and linking structure to give the search engine spiders clear and distinct paths to follow to improve search engine rankings. The session closed with how to use a site maintenance schedule to keep web-based business on track and making money.Class outline:Developing a navigation plan / sitemap based on the purpose of the site.How to set up a site structure to match the planExplaining dash board features and functionsDelineating the difference between a page and a post.Explain how and why to use tags and categories/sub categoriesWhy Silo content / how it effects search engine indexingSite maintenance schedule

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Page 1: Word press meetup   getting started

Copyright © 2010 Pleiades Publishing Services, Co. -

http://PleiadesServices.com

1

Au s t in Wo r d P r e s sM e e t u p

Best PracticesBeginners Track - 08.03.10

Life After Installation

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P r e s e n t e r

. H S a n d r a-C h e v a lie r B a t ik

Research AnalystWeb Content Developer

P le ia d e s P u b lis h in gS e r v ic e s

PO Box 1638Buda TX 78610

http://www.pleiadesservices.com

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A s s u m p t io n s

• Your WordPress has been installed perfectly• Your Theme has been installed perfectly• You are ready to created pages and post articles

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A s s u m p t io n s

• Not so fast Spanky,• We are n o t ready to

put on a show!

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S u c c e s s f u l We b s it e s S t a r t w it h a P la n

How information is organized and accessed is the difference between a successful site…and not so much

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S u c c e s s f u l We b s it e s S t a r t w it h a P la n

Haphazard, poorly conceived and executed sites are so common That any organized website is richly rewarded:

• Visitors like easy to use, logical concise sites and are likely to become customers

• Search engines reward well-planned sites with detailed indexing and better rankings.

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- Th e B a s ic s S it eM a p s

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U n d e r s t a n d in g Th eB a s ic s

N a v ig a t io n a n d S it e M a p s

• Navigation is the organization of your website so you can make sure each page links to others.

• Actually write out your sitemap and plan where the pages of your website will go and where they will link.

• This avoids confusing connections that lead to visitors giving up and going away.

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H TM L S it e m a p s

• HTML Sitemap can be called a site map for humans. It is a single page containing links to all your other pages.

• An HTML site map means visitors are only every 2-clicks away from anywhere on your site.

• It also means that each and every page on your site links to somewhere.

• For a good example of a HTML site map go to: http://ebay.com

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XM L S it e M a p p in g

• An XML sitemap is a document on your site that lets the search engines quickly and thoroughly index your site.

• An XML sitemap is an index of your site that tells search engines how many pages your site has and how those pages link together.

• One XML sitemap works for all major search engines.

• Google offers an XML Sitemap generator

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N a v ig a t io n M e n u

• Visitors use your navigation menu to move to other pages on your website

• Your menus need to be clear and consistant throughout your site.

• Depending on your theme or personal preference the navigation menu can appear in the top or in either of the sidebars

• Your top navigation bar should be limited to about eight links.

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N a v ig a t io n C h e c k lis t

• Each page has an obvious link to the homepage

• Each page can be summed up with a keyword or

keyword phrase, and those keywords are your

navigation labels

• You have eight links or fewer in your navigation with

“housekeeping: links like Privacy Policy at the botton of

the page (text link)

• Every button is obvious and clearly labeled: the site

navigation requires no explanation

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N a v ig a t io n C h e c k lis t

• The navigation buttons are either along the top or on the

left-hand side of the page (visual tracking software

indicates this is optimal positioning)

• Your navigation is identical on every page

• Turn off Flash images that slow or confuse visitors’

navigation of site

• You have a sitemap for visitors and an XML Sitemap for

search engines

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N a v ig a t io n C h e c k lis t

• For every page, you can answer these questions within 10-seconds:

• Where am I?

• Where have I been?

• Where can I go?

• How do I get to the home page?

• Your site is searchable, so your users can opt to navigate your site via the search bar

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N a v ig a t io n C h e c k lis t

• If yours is an eCom site, all product images and descriptions link directly to the order form

• All the links to content on other pages within your site work

• Visitors don't have to register to browse youe site• The site logo is above the fold in the same place on

every page and links back to the homepage• You give people several ways to het to the same place.• You don't link to unfinished or 'under construction' pages

- finish the page then link to it.

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S it e P la n

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S it e P la n

Producing A Plan for Your Site

• On a piece of notebook paper, or using post-its describe your site. Answer the following questions:

• What am I going to do with this? • Who is going to read this? • What kinds of information will I be posting? • Why am I doing this? • Who am I doing this for? • How often am I going to be posting and adding information?

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S it e P la n S u m m a r y

Compile this information into a paragraph so it looks like this:

This website will be dedicated to ______and ______,and cover the topics of ______and _______.

The audience will be __________ ________________ _______. I will be adding posts every _____________ about ________ _______ ______________. I am doing this because _____________ _____________.

Review Your Site Map, Review Your Site Plan.Get back to the DashboardYou Are Now Psyched AND Ready

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Wo r d P r e s sD a s h b o a r d

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/ Ad d M a n a g e P o s t s

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P o s t s

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- P o s t s Ad m in P a n e l

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- P o s t s E d it W in d o w

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- P o s t s C a t e g o r ie s

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— P o s t Ta g s

• In addition to categories, terms or keywords called tags can be assigned to each post.

• Tags act as another navigation tool, but are not hierarchical in nature, meaning there's no relationship from one tag to another.

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— P o s t Ta g s

• Like Categories, Tags provide another means to aid your readers in accessing information on your blog.

• A post may have several tags, which relate to key words and phases.

• Like Categories, Tags are usually linked to a page, which shows all posts having the same tag. Copyright © 2010 Pleiades Publishing Services, Co. - http://PleiadesServices.com

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— P o s t Ta g s

Unlike Categories Tags can be created on-the-fly, by simply

typing them into the tag field

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- P o s t s Ta g s

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Ta g s

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- P o s t s E x e r p t

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— P o s t s E x c e r p t s

• Take the time to carefully wordsmith an excerpt of each blog you post

• This excerpt is the phase that appears in the Google listing that is linked to your URL

• Visitors often make the decision to click through to your site based on these key words

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- P o s t s P u b lis h

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- P o s t s P u b lis h

• With the WordPress “Publish” feature you can edit the date of publication

• You can “preload” months worth of blog entries and set the day time and hour of ‘publication’ to your site.

• If you have years of articles produced before you had your WordPress site you can back-date blogs to capture that information

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C a t e g o r ie s

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— P o s t C a t e g o r ie s

• Every Post in WordPress is filed under one or more Categories.

• Categories allow the classification of your Posts into groups and subgroups, thereby aiding viewers in the navigation and use of your site.

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— P o s t C a t e g o r ie s

• Each Category may be assigned to a Category Parent so that you may set up a hierarchy within the category structure.

• Using food as an example, a hierarchy might be Fish->Salmon->Sushi

• In creating categories, recognize that each category

name must be unique, regardless of hierarchy

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— P o s t C a t e g o r ie s

Thoughtful categorization allows posts of similar content to be grouped in a way that helps viewers use the navigation to find what they are looking for on the site

Careful categorization is also a SEO Best Practice

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- C a t e g o r ie s N e w

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P a g e s

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Yo u r S it e is aB u s in e s s

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Wh e r e t o G e t M o r eIn f o rm a t io n

The WordPress CODEXhttp://codexwordpress.org

WP CODEX is your Oracle, Your wizard of OZYour Tech Rosetta Stone