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WORDPRESS TIPS & TRICKSBe more efficient, have more fun and make your life easier
Green Bee Web Consulting | www.greenbee-web.com | WordPress Tips & Tricks
INTRODUCTIONS
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Real Quick: Who I Am (and why you should bother listening to anything I have to say)
1. My name is Rachel2. Been building websites for over 15 years3. Worked at a Boston nonprofit (and startups,
and corporations)4. Left last fall to work for myself (yay!)5. Work with my awesome partner Clare in
Chicago to build WordPress websites for B Corps, nonprofits and those with a social or environmental mission
6. I’m a co-organizer for the Boston Girl Geek Dinners
Skills (alphabet soup) open source CMS, UX, SEO/SEM, HTML/CSS, OMG!
Find me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelmurray
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ADMIN FEATURESStuff you might not know about already
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Easily ignored features• At a Glance, Activity, Quick
Draft
• Screen Options are amazing!• Editing pages/posts/media• Viewing lists of
pages/posts/media
• Help can actually help
• Revisions
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Settings
• GENERAL • Changing the name,
admin email and URL of your site in one fell swoop
• Time zone change
• READING• Change your homepage• Change default post #s
per page• Search Engine Hiding
(useful for dev sites)
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Settings
• DISCUSSION• Change default
comment settings• Change default
pingbacks/trackbacks
• PERMALINKS• Critical for when you
launch your site
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MAKING PLUGINS LESS SCARY
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How to find good plugins• Wordpress.org (popular
http://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/popular/)• Codecanyon• Google
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WordPress.org
Look at• Last updated• Downloads• Ratings• Compatibility
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When to use paid, When to use freeUse Free Use Paid
Most of the time Rarely
Basic features Unique features
When you don’t need much support If you want to talk to a developer
Some of my favorite pluginsName What it Does
WordPress SEO by Yoast
Easy SEO configurations
WordPress Backup to Dropbox
Backup your site to Dropbox for free!
WP Stripe Want to have a donation form on your site? Stripe makes it easy, no need for all the crazy payment gateways!
WordPress HTTPS If you’re donating you need SSL. But not on every page. Limit it to just the money pages!
Relevannsi Make your site search more effective
Gravity Forms For fancy form creation
All in One WP Security Emphasizes best practices for basic WP security
Search & Replace Standard Search Replace tool
WP Smush It Make your images small!
Green Bee Web Consulting | www.greenbee-web.com | WordPress Tips & Tricks
Green Bee Web Consulting | www.greenbee-web.com | WordPress Tips & Tricks
Plugin Love
You are playing around with plugins. Awesome.
But when you decide you don’t want them anymore, kill ‘em!
Update them pretty please! Your website will thank you by not being hacked
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THEMES
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When to use paid, When to use freeUse Free Use Paid
Rarely Most of the time
If you don’t need much When you want to do anything cool
When you’re okay looking like a basic WP site
When you want to look like a website that ‘isn’t just a blog’
When you don’t need much support If you want to talk to a developer
Green Bee Web Consulting | www.greenbee-web.com | WordPress Tips & Tricks
How to find good themes• Basic free themes – WordPress.org• Premium themes – Themeforest.com
• Look at reviews & stars• Look at feedback &
support• Play with the demo• Most are around $50• Don’t limit yourself
to just nonprofit themes!
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SECURITYIt’s important and not too scary
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Easy things to do• No admin username• Limit login plugin• Keep your plugins,
themes and core updated
• Back up your site
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AWESOME RESOURCESSome amazing tools that will make your life easier
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Image Resources – Free and good!• You can get beautiful professional images for free. But
they’re limited in scope. That said, if you’re an environmental np, you are SET.
• www.pickupimage.com• www.littlevisuals.co• www.unsplash.com• www.superfamous.com
• Can you shell out a little bit? Go to stocksy.com!
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Hosting Love• Site5• SiteGround • Media Temple
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Link Love – Some favorite resources (in no particular order)URL What it is
http://wordpress.org/news/ The official WordPress blog
http://wptavern.com/ All things WP
http://managewp.com/blog All things WP (best free plugins of the month!)
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ Tech & WP
http://www.wpmayor.com/ All things WP
http://wordpress.tv/ Watch WP talks
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/ SEO blog
http://moz.com/blog SEO blog
http://thenextweb.com/ Round up of tech news
http://www.nten.org Nonprofit Technology Network
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Other tools to make your life easierWhat it’s called What it is
Rapportive See your network in your Gmail
BrowserStack Test in multiple browsers online
Awesome Screenshot Free chrome extension to take awesome screengrabs and modify them
ImgFlip Need to make a point? Do it with image meme templates!
Asana Best project management tool evar… and it’s free!
CodeSchool Learn code!
IFTTT Make your stuff do other stuff automated (pro-tip… search for wordpress!)
Unroll.me Unsubscribe and roll up your email!
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QUESTIONS? Let’s do this!