1. Creating WordPress Websites For Niche Organizations
Neha Goyal
@nehagupt
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

2. Hello, World!
Have been working for “niche” organizations for the past decade
Web Developer at American Enterprise Institute
Key to an awesome website: “TELL THE STORY”
My story
I grew up in New Delhi. At 17 years old, I moved half way across the world, not to run away from my family, but to study Computer Science
In my past life, I have been a wedding planner, a serial entrepreneur, and a freelance web developer
Some of the websites that I have built as a freelance web developer by leveraging WordPress are for:
Stationery Design Business
Real Estate Agent
Upenn
Nonprofits
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

3. Niche organizations Small Businesses Selling a product
Providing a service
Nonprofits
Charities
Think tanks
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

4. AGENDA Unique needs and challenges of a niche organization
How to address and work with the challenges
Using WordPress to create a website
Brief Discussion on WP Advanced Topics
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

5. Unique Challenges of “niche” organizations
Smaller Budget
Limited Manpower
Employees wear “Multiple Hats”
Payment Solution
Branding
BUSINESSES
For Profit
Service/ Product
Drive Sales
Competition
NONPROFITS
Not for Profit
Advocacy
Fundraising
While niche organizations have different goals, they have overlapping challenges
Based on my experience, the major challenges of these niche organizations are:
Limited Budget
Limited number of employees, who have to wear multiple hats and have multiple roles
Raising funds/ revenue
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

6. Overcoming the Challenges
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

7. Understanding the goals
What is most important to your organization?
What does success looks like?
How will your website help achieve your goals?
Nonprofits
Fundraising
Advocacy
Creating awareness
Businesses
Generating profits
Promoting your product
How to differentiate yourself from your competition
SUCCESS
Driving Donations
Increasing Sales
Some goals that are easy to track would be sales, donations. There may be more complex goals to track such as brand awareness.
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

8. Understanding your audience
What is important to your audience?
How does your audience access your website?
How does your audience interact with your website?
Know your audience to tailor the website experience to their tastes. Example: Real Estate Website’s Search giving insight and help formulate marketing strategy
What to know about your audience: Demographics, Habits, Interests, Hobbies, Age group, Language, Accessibility, Technology they are using to come to your website
Audience interaction: Content consumption, Look up business information, Donate/ Buy
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

9. Cohesive “Niche” Website Strategy
Clear and Consistent Branding
Easy to find information
Easy to use functionality
Easy to update and maintain
Mobile-friendly aka Responsive website
TELL YOUR “AWESOME” STORY
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

10. Why WordPress? Fastest growing CMS (~60% of the CMS market share*)
User-Friendly
Easy to install and maintain
Customizable (Themes and Plugins)
Active WordPress Community
Trusted by many organizations
* Source:
In my initial years as a freelancer, I faced some challenges in persuading my clients to use WordPress
If you are trying to convince your client, here are some pointers that may help.
Tech Crunch, TED, CNN
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

11. WordPress Theme Considerations
Purchase a theme
Create a custom theme
Responsive Design
Branding of the website
Functionality of the website
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

12. Taxonomy Categories Broad grouping of content
Makes it easy for the user to find content
Hierarchical
Tags
Index words
Not hierarchical
Think about the hierarchy levels. Typically you will want to stick to one to two levels of categories.
For a wedding blog, taxonomy would look like:
Categories (Folders or Topics): Flowers, Cake, Invitation, Venue, Dresses, Featured Wedding
Tags (Book index): A blog post about Flowers could have tags such as orchids, roses, hydrangeas, lilies. At the same time you may tag another post categorized as Venue, Featured Wedding or a Cake with “orchid”. Tagging will help you find like content.
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

13. Post Types Pages Posts Custom Post Types Requires developer skills
Examples of Custom Post Types
Stationery Website: Journals, Invitations, Birth Announcements
Nonprofit: Events, Campaigns, Press Releases
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

14. Advanced Custom Fields
Custom data/fields in the CMS
Multiple input types :
WYSIWYG
Date Picker
Color Picker
Object Relationships
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

15. Intro to WP-CLI Advanced WordPress Management
Perform functions without logging into WordPress:
Install a WordPress website
Update WordPress Core
Manage Plugins
WordPress Backup
Bulk Operations and Data migration
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

16. Keep In Mind Website Performance Use categories and tags judiciously
Use plugins that are actively maintained
Update core and plugins regularly
Website Security
Image optimization
Create taxonomy terms that add value to the website and can be reused
Check if the plugin is being actively maintained/ supported before installing it
Update core and plugins to protect against security vulnerabilities
If you are copying and pasting content from another source into your WordPress Editor – be cautious of bad input and special characters
Use strong passwords
Do not make everyone an admin
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

17. YES, you can…build an AWESOME website
Understanding the goals of your organization
Understanding your audience
Create a Cohesive Website strategy
Tell your “AWESOME” story
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

18. And when you create that awesome website – expect some amazing compliments!
Best Practices for WordPress Website Redesign

19. Thank You
@nehagupt
Slides: nehagoyal.co/events