Creating powerful, cost effective, easily manageable websites WORDPRESS 101

If your organization already has a Wordpress website, please go to it and log in now. If you don’t, please raise your hand and I will register you as a user on the example website so that you can practice there today. Additionally, I have provided some materials on the SWCDM website that we will be using to create example content on your website. You may want to open that page in a new tab now so you can quickly access it. BEFORE WE BEGIN

Many things! WHAT IS WORDPRESS?

A free platform designed for blogs A Content Management System Free and Open Source A set of files installed on your host server The platform that powers over 25% of websites on the internet!

In building a traditional website, you create a series of files with HTML, CSS, PHP and other code that tells internet browsers what should be on the screen and how it should look. Wordpress (and many other systems like Squarespace, Weebly, etc) create an app that allows you to build websites without knowing the code. You input text, select options, and Wordpress outputs the code. You don’t need a computer science degree to use it! WORDPRESS VS. TRADITIONAL WEBSITES

HOW TO USE WORDPRESS

A blog is a like a diary. Posts are the entries. Posts are a set of content like “what I did today” that has a date and time related to it. Because WP was originally a blogging platform, information is added to your website by adding Posts. WP automatically sorts and displays these posts based on the timestamp. WHAT BLOGGING MEANS FOR YOU

 Pages are actually a type of custom post that Wordpress automatically creates. Other custom post types you might see: Event, Gallery, etc.  Pages place less importance on the timestamp (although they do still have one).  Pages will not appear in “The Loop” of posts  The best content to put on a page is information that won’t change. POSTS VS. PAGES

 About Us  Contact Us  Mission Statement  Meetings (“We meet on the Third Thursday of every month”)  However, Meeting Minutes & Agendas are better placed as posts, because their relevance decreases the older they get. CONTENT THAT’S GOOD FOR PAGES The SWCDM Staff page

 Project updates  Meeting minutes  Link to a new resource you found  Grant opportunities  Anything that will slowly lose relevance over time. Describe what you’re posting in the beginning of your post. “SWCDM is now seeking Irrigation Water Management proposals. This is a great program that….Here’s the link!” That way users can search for “irrigation” and this post will come up, even if it’s old! CONTENT THAT’S GOOD FOR POSTS Blog posts on the MACD website

 In the ideal situation, you have a “Meetings” page. On this page, you outline the date, time, rules, etc for your meetings.  Meeting Minutes and Agendas are then posted as posts each month as they are available.  You can create a post category called “Meeting Minutes” and “Meeting Agendas”  You can then create a link in your navigation menu to the category archive. On the archive page, WP will automatically list the meeting minutes and meeting agendas with the newest on top.  Your post will mainly be just a link to the PDF of your minutes or agenda, but it’s helpful if you write a little description of what you discussed. That way, people can search for “Prickly Pear Project” and the results will include minutes from meetings where you discussed that project HANDLING MEETINGS WITH WORDPRESS

Create a post for the minutes from July’s meeting Categorize that post as “Meeting Minutes” Add the meeting minutes category to your menu PRACTICE TIME!

Ok, let’s make it stylish! THEMES

 A theme is another set of files that goes in your Wordpress files.  It contains information that tells browsers how to display the information in your Wordpress database.  They can be simple or complex  Many add new functions to your site  Your theme is what determines the colors of your site, where the menus are, what information is displayed with a post, how big images should be, and LOTS MORE. WHAT’S A THEME?

 There are lots of free themes, and there are lots of paid themes. Wordpress is a HUGE industry!  There are lots of great themes and lots of really bad ones  Paying for a theme generally means it’s probably more trustworthy, but NOT ALWAYS.  Research the developer. Do they seem professional?  Read reviews on the theme  Don’t pay attention to the content on the demo, but rather look at how it is structured and and how well it seems to work.  Determine if the layout is right for your organization. A theme designed for professional photographers may be beautiful, but it will probably require a photo for every post. Do you have photos for meeting minutes? Didn’t think so. CHOOSING A THEME

 After you purchase your theme, or find the link to an awesome free one, you’ll download the files.  They should come in.zip format. Leave it like that!  Navigate to Appearance / Themes / Add New / Upload Theme  Find your file & upload it & your done!  Now just click “Activate Theme” and your site has a whole new look! INSTALL YOUR THEME

It doesn’t look pretty right out of the box. Some tips: Use the live preview to check out how it looks first. Try every menu option to see what it does! You can always go back to your old theme if you don’t like it. CUSTOMIZE YOUR THEME Go to: Appearance / Customize

Taking WP the extra mile PLUGINS

A set of files that adds more functions to Wordpress. Some common plugin types:  Backup Plugin  Event Calendar  Contact Form  Analytics Dashboard There are millions of plugins, and they can do just about anything! WHAT IS A PLUGIN?

Plugins are a lot like themes, and the interface to install them is similar. Most plugins are in the WP catalog, so you can search for plugins and install them right in WP without downloading to your computer. Be sure to check out the plugin first! Look for good reviews, number of downloads, complete list of features, last time it was updated, support system, etc. Plugins can carry malware that will destroy your site, so be careful! HOW TO INSTALL PLUGINS

 Events Calendar: MACD uses All in One Event Calendar by Time.ly  Analytics: I love Google Analytics Dashboard for WP. It creates a simple widget in your dashboard that shows how many people have visited your site recently. It taught me that no one visits the MACD website on the weekends!  Backup: Updraft Plus-Backup/Restore is an easy to use backup plugin. My favorite feature is that it can automatically save your backups to Google Drive or Dropbox. It’s really easy to restore a backup if something goes wrong too. RECOMMENDED PLUGINS

 WP Smush It will reduce the size of your images to cut down on load time  W3 Total Cache asks browsers to create a cache of your data so your site loads faster (instead of going across the ocean for every page)  Wordpress PopUp if you have a newsletter, this is a great way to gather signups!  Akismet SPAM BLOCKER. When your site gets popular, you’ll get spammed. For $5 per month, this plugin blocks spam comments really well. (if you don’t want to simply turn off comments) Notes about plugins:  The more you install, the slower your site will be, generally. Choose wisely! OTHER PLUGIN RECOMMENDATIONS

HOW TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE GREAT

The most important part of a website is how easy it is for a user to find the information they’re looking for. When you’re building your website, think carefully about the different types of content you’ll be posting, and how it should be organized. Will you be posting project updates? Do you host a lot of events? Are you creating a website to provide links to resources? How will your target user use the site? WHO IS YOUR TARGET USER? (hint: it shouldn’t be “everyone”) ORGANIZE!

This is part of organizing.Wordpress has a great system for creating easy to use navigation menus. Head to Appearance / Menus. There, you find that you can insert pages, categories, and lots more into your menu. Then just drag and drop to arrange it how you like. Use sub items to create drop down menus and simplify the top line! Before adding to the first menu level, think about whether that item should be there forever, and whether it’s actually a subset of something else. It’s great to have a Board & Staff page, but isn’t that kind of part of About Us? Meetings could go under about us or under Events. You get the picture! MAKE YOUR MENU GREAT

Say you go to a website to get more information about an organization. The last time they posted meeting minutes was You trust them to do a good job with your project, right? Didn’t think so. The beauty of Wordpress is that it’s REALLY EASY to post content. So there should be no excuse for not posting! POST REGULARLY

A picture is worth a thousand words. And the internet has a short attention span. If you have photos, post them! We live in a beautiful state, so if you have a camera phone it should be REALLY EASY to at least capture one nice photo when You’re out touring a project, Or driving to work. Or on your way to convention. Or someone awesome comes into the office to chat. Or you’re at the school doing an education project. Or you eat locally raised beef at a restaurant. ADD PICTURES.

The bigger the resolution, the better it will look on your site. But the longer it will take to load. Shoot for photos that are at least 1000 pixels wide to start. WP Smush.It can help you reduce the file size without losing quality. Pictures too dark or too bright or washed out? Pixlr is an online photo editor that can help you out with that. It can also put filters or text on your photo to make something really hip! A NOTE ABOUT PHOTOS

RESOURCES TO LEARN MORE

Remember when I said Wordpress was free and open source, and powered 25% of the web? One of the great things about that is that there is a huge community of people who are dedicated to improving it. It’s constantly changing! So what I taught you today might be a little different next year (but that’s for the best!).

A great way to stay on top of it (and keep learning!) is by subscribing to a Wordpress blog. WPMU.DEVWPMU.DEV posts a lot of great articles on improving your WP site. I particularly love their “Weekend Wordpress Projects”. WP Beginner WP Beginner is a great resource for those who are just getting to know the world of Word Press. Theme creator I love: Elegant Themes. They have a great WP blog too.