So what do I do? What is this website about? This is yet another WordPress blog on tips, tricks, and reviews.
I will be taking you on a journey of building your business online. Any business. Every business needs a website. But many starting out don’t have the bookoo bucks to pay someone and for it.
Besides getting all that, I will also be teaching you how to DIY your site. What theme to choose, the essential plugins you need and reviews on them.
And some tips on social media and copy. What I’ve tried and the results I get.
A little about me. I’ve been in the online space for about 6 years. Creating websites here and there, a self taught DIYer of design and web.
I then fell in love with teaching – so now I’m going to give you guidance on building your website.
Why are you failing at building your WordPress website?
Partly because there is a shit ton of information out there telling you to do this, and to do that. This is the best hosting company. The best plugins, the best WordPress theme. Page builders, blocks, the list goes on.
And you know something? Many of them are right. There are so many choices. Great choices, but for the beginner this can be too much to take in at once.
How do I teach you the non-techy beginner with all the choices out there?
The below will easily get you started on your WordPress journey.
These are the top 3 things you need to get started:
- WordPress Managed Hosting
This means your website is exclusive to WordPress. With general hosting (sites that run on different platforms, Drupal, Joomla) there isn’t a way for your website to run effectively with all the different types of software. With managed hosting being exclusive to WordPress; security, updates, speed, daily backups and uptime is included in your plan. You get better support with WordPress managed hosting because these types of hosting companies know everything about the platform. - A Stable WordPress Theme
This can be a time consuming process finding the right theme. But what you need to look for is a theme that is mobile optimized (your site viewable on all devices), secure, fast, and well supported. - Stable Plugins
With 57,116 plugins (and counting) on WordPress.org where do you start? A good tip, only use the plugins you need, make sure they are the most downloaded, most supported, and have the best reviews.
Ok so how do I design my site?
Based on what WordPress theme you choose, your design is already done for you. You would need to add your colors, logo and replace the theme images with your own. And with WordPress being block based it is so much easier to design than in previous versions.
A good resource to start with is Canva. They have images, graphics, a color palette generator and a photo editor. They offer a free or paid plan. Great if you don’t have the bucks for programs like Adobe Photoshop.
Getting started with copywriting
Now let’s talk about adding content to your site. I’m not a writer and as of this writing I’m struggling to get this 1st post up. I got my site together, I planned it out and then I’m like oh shit I need content.
I kind of thought it might just come to me, you know like the Copy Gods from above would guide me on a short journey of writing bad ass content on my site.
No dice. So I started researching all copy websites, copywriters, copy downloads, joined summits around copy. And it is overwhelming I must say. But great place to start is with Copyhackers. MANY freebies and tutorials.
Search Engine Optimization
Then there is SEO. Search Engine Optimization. I’m not going to give you the easy way to get to the first page of google at the very top because there is no easy way.
And don’t you dare buy in to anyone telling you for a price that they can guarantee you get to the top of google in 1 day. Or a few hours. They’re lying. They just want your money. Period end of story.
It’s work and it’s time. Google changes their algorithms all the time.
There are few things you can do to help Google find you:
Make sure your site is mobile responsive. This is where having a well coded theme comes into play. It will be mobile ready so you don’t have to worry about this. Google ranks mobile responsive sites higher.
Search intent. It is the “Why” of keywords a user uses when looking for something.
There are 3 types of search intent:
- Informational Searches – A user is wanting to know about a particular topic. Example: “How do I make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies?”
- Transactional Searches – This is when a user is ready to buy. Example: “The best paint for a porch.”
- Navigational Searches – This is when a user knows a particular brand and it is generally a 1 or 2 word search. Example: Lysol
One more tip, keywords stuffed in your content isn’t going to get you anywhere either. A quote from Google on that:
“Filling pages with keywords results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.”
Stay with me.
For starters I put this guide together on getting started with WordPress, 5 Steps to Launch. Access [thrive_2step id=’1399′]here[/thrive_2step]!
And if you’re open to sticking around, I’ll have other stuff that I will bring to this online world to help you.
To stay in the know you can get on my list. I will be emailing about once a week. Announcing current blog posts, links of interest and putting out videos of WordPress tips that I hope you will find interesting.
Any requests? Please comment below.
Grazie!