Unfortunately in the process he has made radical changes to the plugin resulting in blowing away all the previous user job configurations and settings requiring users to recreate all the previous work of setting up backup jobs, re-entering passwords, re-authorizing connections to Dropbox and other cloud storage services. In addition the new version is very buggy and is many cases is not working at all (see the plugin support page for current details and status of the multitude of problems).

Essentially the current version (3.0.3) is broken and should not be used.

One big advantage of this version of WordPress is that now I can create and edit posts on my iPad. In the previous version of WordPress the insert media interface was too large for the iPad mini with the insert-image button off the bottom of the iPad screen so you could never insert the image. The new media insert interface handles mobile devices much better.

 I like it!

Relevanssi replaces WordPress default search with a partial-match search that sorts results by relevance instead of the default reverse chronological order. It also indexes comments and shortcode content, so it’s a real benefit for WordPress websites.

I was using the latest free version 2.9.14 of the plugin and noticed that when I was searching the Media Library for any search term I was getting “No media attachments found.” I also found a related issue when using the Link button in the visual editor, the “link to existing content” function also was not working.

I started the usual debugging process of switching to the default Twenty Eleven theme and disabling all plugins. Reactivating plugins one at a time to narrow down the problem I was able to see the problem with only the plugin Relevanssi active.

I notified the developer Steve Mikkosaari about the problem using the WordPress support forum.

He responded right away:

Sure. There are some issues with the media searching in Relevanssi, the next version will hopefully address them.

I’ll see that these are fixed in the next version.

Meanwhile, with Relevanssi Premium both media library searches and “link to existing content” work with WP 3.4.1, so you might want to consider upgrading to the Premium version. It’s just nine euros or so, and has lots of benefits compared to the free version.

I consider this +1 responsive support from a developer of a free plugin – thumbs up for his response. Now we’ll see how soon he fixes the problem.

So, the bottom line, I’ve disabled the plugin, but not removed it from my site and my clients’ sites and will wait for his next version to see if it fixes the problem. I hope it does, because it adds real value to the websites by giving better search results.

Your website design is the key component in your internet marketing ecosystem

Your website is the heart of your internet marketing ecosystem

Your website and other internet properties are part of your business marketing ecosystem, and an extension of your brand on the internet, and should be viewed in that context and not as isolated objects. You website design should be reinforcing your brand and extending your marketing messages to reach potential customers on their terms.

Think about what you want to say to your potential customers and also think about what they may be looking for. For example here’s a humorous look at law firm website design …

What you think should go on your website may NOT be what your customers are looking for…

To help with your website design it’s useful to know what your goals are for having a website and how the website fits with the rest of your marketing.

Here are seven questions that will help you understand what you need for your website

1. Do you have a brand statement (What is a professional branding statement?) what is it and how does your website help you reach your target audience?
2. Do you have specific goals or objectives for the website? Realistic quantitative goals that we can measure and track, like “increase sales of product line x by 20% in 12 months”, or “add 20 qualified contacts to our sales list each month” are better than “we want more business” or “we want more potential customers to consider us”.
3. Is you website a showcase of your work that you can point folks to who are interested in custom work? Or, do you want to display existing inventory and generate inbound sales calls, or do you have anything you want to sell directly from the website?
4. How often do you want/expect to update the site with new information for existing and potential customers including, new projects, new items, where you will be presenting or showing your products?
5. Do you have interesting information (documents, photos, videos, audio, newsletter) that would be of interest to potential clients, educate and/or entertain them, and increase the likelihood that they will choose your business when they want to make a purchase?
6. Do you have, or do you want to build an email list of potential clients? If so, what do you intend to send them, and how often? Do you already have customer and leads lists that you want to combine with your new contacts? Are you already using a mail list provider, if so which one?
7. Do you have any other presence on the internet, like a Facebook or Linkedin page, do you have a Yelp account or YouTube channel? Are you members of any associations that have websites that would point a link to your website?

The answers to these questions will help you create a website that not only looks good, but is a functional component of your marketing ecosystem.