SCORE Orange County

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1 Work Smarter, Not Harder WordPress for Small Businesses Plus Key Web Trends & Best Practices Presented by About Your Presenter Victoria Byrne President - Creative Marketing Services, LLC 15 Years Experience in Corporate & Small Business Marketing Marketing Specialist & Strategist Constant Contact Authorized Local Expert CMS is a Full Service Marketing Agency Specializing in WordPress, Strategic Planning & Internet Marketing victoria@creativemktgservices.com Creativ e Marketing Services, LLC Creativ e Marketing Services, LLC Agenda What is WordPress? Why WordPress is Great for Small Businesses What is Responsive Design & Why You Need it Key Mobile & Web Trends Why It Makes Sense to Convert Your Site To WordPress Overview of What is WordPress? WordPress is a free, web-based software platform that anyone can use to build and maintain a website or blog WordPress One of the fastest growing website and blog platforms in the world Incorporates customizable themes and thousands of compatible plugins Supports future online growth and development of your business Includes Responsive website design themes

2 Source: wordpress.org/ history 1 wpmudev.org/blog/wor dpress-10-years-old-v isual- history Source: Leaders West Digital Marketing Journal- graphic Source: wpde.org wordpress.org/about.stats SCORE Orange County WordPress WordPress Now Powers More than 24% of the Web¹ WordPress Market Share Content Management Systems (CMS) 15% Power & Flexibility Why WordPress? WordPress powers: WordPress started Plugins & themes 2,181 plugins as a blogging platform introduced 4,082,626 downloads 2012 Responsive Design 2016 Over 47,000 plugins 453,551,157 downloads + WordPress 9% Joomla Drupal Other 10% 66% WordPress Websites News Sites Magazines Communities Blogs Intranets E-commerce and more! Who Uses WordPress? Website = Online Hub & Foundation The Wall Street Journal Ford Nikon Pepsi ebay NBA CNN Small Businesses Just Like You! Why WordPress is Great for Small Businesses

3 WordPress is an open source code that is FREE. Platform that supports blogs AND websites Options include FREE hosting of blog ( and website applications to download ( #1 Cost Effective Domain Registration Branding Keep it Short & Simple Don t Include Hyphens or Numbers Register Your Domain for 5-10 Years Go for.com, then consider.net or.org Obtain Login/PW for Domain Registration Just Starting a Business? Don t Wait to Register! DON T LET YOUR DOMAIN REGISTATION EXPIRE! Web Hosting WordPress.com - Good resource for hosting a basic blog for free. For websites & blogs with advanced features, we recommend: SiteGround ( WP Engine ( Web Hosting #2 Easily Grow & Expand #2 Easily Grow & Expand Many web hosting companies offer the ability to Install WordPress in 5 Minutes! Based on your budget, you can start very basic and easily add: Pages Articles Photos Videos Features Functions Etc Just Getting Started? Include thee basics pages, then add more over time: 1. Home 2. Services or Product 3. About 4. FAQs 5. Testimonials (add as received) 6. Blog 7. Contact

4 Blogging #3 Can Do it ALL Event Calendar Event Registration #3 Can Do it ALL Shopping Carts #3 Can Do it ALL Online Catalogs #3 Can Do it ALL Photo Gallery #3 Can Do it ALL Video Library #3 Can Do it ALL

5 Constant Contact WP Plug-in #3 Can Do it ALL Community Forum #3 Can Do it All #3 Can Do it ALL Resource / Directory Memberships the list goes on & on #4 Great Content Management System Gives You Control Over Your Website #5 Easy to Use Maintain, Manage & Update Your Own Website #6 Amazing Plugins Plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. Plugins are software that offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs

6 WordPress SEO by Yoast (Search Engine Optimization) #6 Amazing Plugins #6 Amazing Plugins Google Analyticator Testimonials #6 Amazing Plugins Creative Marketing Services, LLC FAQs #6 Amazing Plug-ins Staff #6 Amazing Plugins Lead Generation Forms #6 Amazing Plugins Creative Marketing Services, LLC

7 #6 Amazing Plugins Gravity Forms Event Espresso Woo Commerce BuddyPress plus many more Over 47,000 Plug-ins! #6 Amazing Plugins Widgets add content and features to your sidebars or widgetized areas #6b Widgets Creative Marketing Services, LLC #7 Thousands of Themes #7 Themes: Themeforest Buy Design Themes Search by industry Provide a great starting point Can be customized by web programmers!

8 #7 Themes: Elegant Themes #7 Themes: Woo Themes #7 Thousands of Themes Restaurants #7 Thousands of Themes #7 Thousands of Themes #7 Thousands of Themes Resort Business e-commerce

9 #7 Thousands of Themes #7 Thousands of Themes #8 Customize Design Vacation Rental Non-profit No longer looks like a blog Customize your website to reflect your branding Salutation Theme: Before & After #8 Customize Design Gym Base Theme Before Gym Base Theme After #9 Search Engine Friendly Google crawls WordPress a lot therefore sites using WordPress platform tend to rank well in search results. Advanced SEO Tools #9 Search Engine Friendly Advanced SEO Tools Ability to easily update/add content to sites regularly Search Engines like to see fresh, relevant content SEO Plug-ins Google XML Sitemaps Easily come up with inbound links, track-backs, submit comments which help improve page rank = increase traffic

10 ¹Source: CNN ² BrightEdge MobileShare Report, SCORE Orange County #10 Great Multi-Media Support Flexibility to edit the appearance/ Media Library Easily add: Slide Shows Images Embed Videos Audio Files PDF Documents Insert Google Maps Google Calendar Google Docs +more WordPress Resource What is Responsive Design and Why You Need it Responsive Website Design Top Web Trend Website responds to the size of screen being displayed on Single design will work on ALL devices/ screen sizes! Eliminates need for secondary mobile version of website Mobile Trends In 2015, Mobile Internet Usage has Surpass Desktop Usage¹. Smartphone traffic increased 125% as compared to desktop growth, which increased only 12 percent². Mobile Trends

11 Mobile Trends In April 2015, Google is changed its ranking system to favor those with mobile friendly websites, i.e., ones that can be easily read on smartphones, without tons of graphics and flash to slow things down. As many as 40% of top websites are not currently mobile friendly. Source: USA Today, April 18, 2015 Read Full Article: Mobile Devices Mobile Exercise How Does Your Site Measure Up? Ease of Navigation? Font Sizes/Readability? Call(s) to Action? Phone number clickable? How well is your branding represented? Google Mobile-Friendly Test Key Web Trends Top Web Trends WordPress Responsive Design Simple Website Design Rich Content Focus Video in Place of Text

12 ¹ Source: Forrester, 2012 ² Source: Marketingweek 2012 ³ Source: Bytemobile 2012 Info-graphics by JenChicago SCORE Orange County Rich Content Focus Valuable content to attract & engage + inform Build relationships & trust Regular & consistent updates Blog posts, updates, video, newsletter, social media + inbound marketing Top Web Trends Video, Video, Video Lower barriers to entry Video in place of text More cost effective Accessibility to sophisticated editing software Top Web Trends Video, Video, Video Video can increase the chance of a front page Google result by 53x with proper optimization¹ Video results appear in close to 70% of the top 100 listings² Video now accounts for 50% of traffic on wireless networks³ Top Web Trends Clear & Concise Positioning Statement Includes Call to Action

13 Phone # in Upper Right Hand Corner Less is More (balance Content & Images) Social Media Buttons Sign Up Feature Recent Blog Post Fresh & Consistent Content

14 Address: Why Should I Care? Include a Contact Form Do not include address Consider separate lead generation forms Install It s FREE Top Turnoffs for Visitors What Not to Do! Slow Load Time. Ideal <2-4s Non-mobile/Hard to Navigate Outdated Design & Generic Content Benefits are Not Clear Content is Difficult to Read Auto Play Anything music, videos, etc 1. Post Frequently: 3-4 times per month

15 2. Keep it Brief: 500 words 3. Use a Catchy Headline 4. Use Interesting Images 5. Include Top Keywords 6. Include Links 7. Include Videos or Create a Video Blog

16 8. Use Bullet Points, Italics & Bold Font 9. Encourage Comments 10. Post Tags 11. Make Your Blog Easy to Share 12. Promote Your Blog - post to Social Media + include in newsletters Maintenance & Security Backup Your Theme & Database Keep Current with WP Releases Update Plug-ins

17 Why It Makes Sense to Convert Your Website to WordPress Convert Your Website to WordPress Ask Yourself these Questions: Is your website responsive or do you have a mobile website? Are you able to easily update your website yourself? Does your website have all of the features you want? Does your website function the way it should? Do you have a blog within your website? Does your website have the ability to grow & expand? 10 Reasons Why It Makes Sense to Convert to WordPress 1. You re in Control 2. Easy to learn, maintain + update 3. Responsive web designs 4. Endless expansion possibilities 5. Over 44,000 plugins! 6. Incredibly flexible + powerful 7. Built-in blog 8. SEO made easy 9. Cost effective 10. Support is Second to None Converting to WordPress Overview Dashboard

18 Overview New vs. Returning Visitor Pageviews Traffic Overview Highest Traffic Day Traffic Details

19 Acquisition Overview Acquisition Details Organic Search / Keywords Mobile Overview / Devices Mobile Details iphone App

20 View & Track Your Analytics on a Monthly Basis Action Items: Summary Take Aways 1. Is your website mobile friendly test on your mobile device. 2. Sign up & install + review stats monthly 3. Review web best practices + incorporate them on your site Receive More Tips Sign Up for the CMS Newsletter Text CMS to How to Contact SCORE Orange County Services To schedule a mentoring appointment To access our workshop calendar or register for a workshop To request online mentoring Call or Access (714)