WordPress is a popular platform. According to whoishostingthis.com in a 2018 report there are 175 billion websites of which about 75 million are WordPress sites. From that number about 37.5 million are hosted at the WordPress official site.
Two Methods To Start A WordPress Website
You can do a WordPress site in one of two ways.
1. Pick a website host. For example hostmonster.com. Purchase a plan from them that usually costs around $5 to $10 a month per year. Once you have a plan, install WordPress and you are off to creating your website. At Hostmonster they have 7/24 phone support and helpful videos for all web host plans.
2. Go to wordpress.com and select a plan. Once you have a plan you move right into the creating your website. There are many forums integrated into WordPress with a question/answer format. These forums are excellent resources to research problems and solutions, along with reviewing features of plugins from actual users.
Nine Common Mistakes WordPress Owners Make With Content Marketing
Content marketing is the method or process of building content to substantiate and demonstrate your product/services, along with the process of converting website visitors into a subscriber or a purchaser.
The content used in a content marketing effort includes web pages, photos, and videos on your website, and also in marketing channels that includes social media and YouTube.
#1 Security
Wordpress releases new versions of the software from time to time. This updating process is just a natural segment of every software life cycle.
The security issue lies in many website owners don't install the updates that WordPress releases.
This allows hackers an easy way to take advantage of the older versions of WordPress sites. For example, hypothetically, say Wordpress has a new version in June 2017 that fixes a piece of code which hackers have been using to do damage to WordPress sites. That piece of code, to fix a security issue, is not updated/installed into a website/blog until the website owner/admin installs the new version of WordPress.
"Less than 1/3 of all WordPress installations (websites & blogs) are updated to the latest version."
- WordPress.com
Wordpress is very good about making it clear that a new version is available to install. A notice appears on the Wordpress dashboard of every website/blog. But it's up to the website owner/administrator to do the install.
Be sure to read the notices that WordPress provides about software updates.
NOTE: There is a second security concern. Be sure to change the username and password that is supplied as the default when you open your WordPress account. This mistake is more common than you think.
#2 SEO - Search Engine Optimization
There are a couple of items to address here.
A. DEFAULT TAGS: Be sure to change the default tag line that is automatically installed.
B. SEO TAGS: Install and use a SEO plugin for each web page. I have used the Yoast SEO plugin and seen some excellent search engine results with it.
C. PHOTOS & SEO: Photos/Images do not have the "Alt" tags completed. Each photo/image should have a short text description in the "Alt" tag to tell the search engine what it's depicting. For example, if you have a before/after landscape image, the "Alt" tag may read as "Landscaping project in (city name) before/after photos".
That example is an effective "Alt" tag when your SEO target is Landscape Contractors in (city name) or with a SEO target of Landscaping services in (city name).
D. PAGE SPEED: The speed at which your web page displays to a visitor is an important factor, according to Google, in determining your search engine organic ranking(s). Most sites I have seen don't have/use a Cache plugin. I like W3 Total Cache plugin which is also free. Of course, when you have your site encrypted (see below) you are not going to need the cache plugin.
#3 Architecture
A. FILE NAMES: Without making this too complicated, filenames play an important role in SEO. As a general rule of thumb, use the header of your page as your file name - at least the first five words of that top title on your page. Follow that rule on every page of your website.
Proficient SEO habits mean each page contain a unique "Heading 1" title at the top of the page. That heading structure gives search bots clear direction on what to be looking at - synthesizing - on your web page.
There are SEO methods that go deeper than the rule I just provided, however; if you are new to this SEO concept of file naming, that general rule will get you started in the right direction.
B. ENCRYPT SITE: Google came out in 2017 and said that encrypted websites get favored in search results. You can get a free SSL Certificate at clouflare.com and install it on your site/blog. They also have paid versions of the certificate. For a single business owner, you have everything you need with the free SSL certificate. The SSL certificate modifies your site from http to https.
We will encrypt your site if you need help and here is a link.
#4 Sales Funnel
Many sites I have worked on do not contain a clearly defined sales funnel.
That means lost opportunity to sell products/services and also makes it more difficult to measure your marketing success in Google Analytics.
The sales funnel is the process used on a web site to accomplish the following steps ....
1. Inform the viewer of your products/services
2. Educate the viewer on features and benefits of your product/services
3. Convert the viewer into a subscriber or buyer of your products/services
In the web page content/media to accomplish those three objectives you will place "call to action" opportunites. Those opportunites could be, as simple as, a button to call you. Or, maybe a button to send their email address to you and become a subscriber.
Your call to action strategy will vary with your marketing objectives.
We hope this has been helpful to you building a better web site.
If you have any questions, drop us an email.
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