WordPress CMS Websites

Do you know what software was used to build your website?  Many business owners don’t, but most prefer a website powered by a Content Management System (CMS).  A CMS website is the type that the average person is able to update and maintain without having to have special techie skills.

The most popular CMS in use on the web today is WordPress.  WordPress is a free open source website software built on PHP and MySQL.  That last tidbit is just in case you happen to be a techie.

Is WordPress Vulnerable To Hacking?

Hackers enjoy searching out and exploiting security holes.  Because WordPress is supported by a vast community of users who quickly report problems, WordPress is actually more secure than others.  But, as with any software, basic security steps need to be followed to avoid getting hacked.

WordPress takes website security very seriously and provides regular updates to address any new security concerns.  The key to avoiding potential security risks is to keep your WordPress installation up to date.  Many website companies like ours train clients how to update their sites and provide webmaster services for clients who prefer to have help.

How Do You Keep WordPress Websites Updated?

In recent years, upgrading your core WordPress software and plugins has been made even easier.  It is a one-click procedure and your website dashboard  provides a visual alert to indicate an update is needed.

If you do not have a webmaster or hosting plan that includes website back-ups, be sure to back-up your website regularly and always make a quick back-up of your website prior to making software updates.

Do you have website security questions?  Share them here and I’ll be happy to answer!

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This morning as I attended my weekly BNI Networking Excellence chapter meeting, we discussed ways to support each others’ businesses online.  Craig Collier (owner of Fitness Together and amazing muscle master) mentioned his FB business page.  This sparked discussion about the easiest ways to share the our page links with each other.

We have a great private Facebook Group which allows us to interact and share information with each other other.  We could post page links there, but there is an even easier way to notify friends and family that you have a Facebook business page and get support/likes for your page.  If you just post a link on your personal page, or add to a group, people who have email notifications turned off may miss it all together.

The best chance of getting a response is to send a message directly to your friends asking for support of your page via “like”.

A few quick steps and screen shots are included below for your viewing pleasure…

Step 1:  Visit your Facebook business page and click on your Admin Panel (if you are an admin)

Facebook Admin Panel. The red "1" is notification of a new page interaction

Step 2: Expand your Admin Panel and pick the way you prefer to gain more friends/followers for your page

Expand your Admin Panel, and choose your preferred option

Step 3:  Invite friends, email contacts, or share the page.  Build Audience also allows you to create an Ad on Facebook to gain page attention and “Likes”.

Invite Friends provides multiple segmenting options including offering friends you interact with frequently, friends who are local to your town, or all friends.

Friends who already like your page will be washed out in appearance while friends who don’t already like your page will have a check box option to allow selection of specific friends within a group.

Don’t be offended if some of your friends are not already supporting your page.  Your friends may not be aware you have a business page and will likely be happy to support you and your business.

Did you find these tips helpful?  Feel free to comment on this post if you have any questions and Happy Facebook marketing!

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Facebook has already warned you, but in case you haven’t heard the buzz, Facebook is introducing New Facebook Business Pages on March 30, 2012.  If you haven’t prepared your page yet, you will want to do so tonight so that your page does not look strange or outdated.

The new layout will closely resemble the Timeline layout found on personal pages, and Facebook supplies lots of great resources to learn more about the new features and business tools found on the new format.  Check out their Pages Overview PDF and Facebook Pages Learning video.

If you haven’t prepared yet you need to…

Create a captivating cover photo

• Use an image that is at least 399 pixels wide.  Cover photos are 851 wide x 351 tall and if you use an image smaller than this it will be stretched out and not look as professional
• Use a photo that is a great representation of your brand and visually captivating.  You can do this yourself in an image editing program, or contact a trusted digital creative firm to create one for you

Don’t break the Facebook cover photo guidelines

• According to Facebook, your cover may not contain price or purchase information such as “50% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Do not use website address, physical address, email, or other contact information Facebook intends for your page’s “About” section
• Do not reference Facebook lingo such as “Like” or “Share” or other Facebook specific features
• No calls to action are allowed such as such as “Tell your friends”, “Buy Now”, or “Get Yours Today”
• A full list of Facebook page guidelines are available on Facebook

Take Advantage of New Features

Pin posts to the top of your timeline to highlight different things weekly.

Use images in your posts and feature them to capture attention.

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Photograph of Katie by Shannon Kelley of Shannon Kelley Photography

We are very excited to announce the grand prize winner of our first Win a Website Design Makeover contest.   And the winner is…

Photographer Katie Bohannon!

From all of our contest entries we drew 10 names.  Katie’s name was drawn as one of our 10 finalists and her incredible story moved every member of our team.  We can’t wait to help Katie get an amazing website and digital branding package working to help her business.

There were so many great entries, we are also extending a special discounted website offer to each person who entered our contest.  If you entered and haven’t heard from us yet, feel free to contact us now for details.

Here is Katie’s story:

Katie is mom to 3 miracle children and wants to use her photography to give back to NICU grads and special needs children.  Read the story of her children and you will see how these two things have impacted her life.

Like many small business owners, Katie attempted to build a website for herself, but found it a challenge to create the type of site she needed.  Photographers have a very visual product and Katie knew she needed a site that would set her apart. 

We are excited for the chance to make a difference in Katie’s life and give her the type of website that can help engage her visitors and grow her business.

Subscribe to our blog and receive updates on Katie’s story and learn how her future WordPress website and digital branding package are positively impacting her business.

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You are your pingbacks.

Before I elaborate, it probably behooves me to explain what pingbacks are, since I claim they define you, or rather your blog presence.

Trackbacks vs Pingbacks

“Way back when” in the early blogging days, people wanted to be notified when someone linked to a post on their blog.  Enter the trackback, an automated process using HTTP POST that sends authors notification when someone references their blog post using a special tracking link.

It was pretty cool.  You could share comments back and forth between posts, and the person who wrote the original article received a link to the replying article, which showed up as part of the comment.

But issues with the authenticity of trackback comments quickly surfaced, since the person being linked to originally could edit the trackback to make the comment say whatever they wanted.  So the original article may have been referenced and criticized by the second author, but the first author could edit the text to make it a glowing recommendation.

Also, you had to use a special tracking link, which was an extra step.  Who needs extra steps in their life?  Not the average blogger.

Enter the pingback.  It simplified the linking process by only requiring that you linked to the original post within the text of your blog post.  All you have to do to make it work is just enable pingbacks in your WordPress dashboard.

Pingbacks cut out the comments that came with the links, so people couldn’t edit the nature of the reference.  They could only approve or deny the link.

Some people like trackbacks better because they give context to the link, some like pingbacks better because they’re harder to fake.

Ping-MAY-toe – track-MAH-toe. Now you know.

Back to the pingbacks metaphor…

OK.  So I was saying that you are your pingbacks.  Here’s what I’m getting at:

A genuine pingback – or trackback if you prefer – is evidence that you’re doing something right.  You’re talking about subjects that interest people enough to make them want to link to you, to discuss you and what you’re thinking about.

If you’re not getting pingbacks and you’ve been at blogging for a while (spam pingbacks don’t count – and you should be able to tell the difference quickly by visiting a pingback link), you need to re-evaluate what you’re doing.

Have you done keyword research to determine if your subject matter is popular with others?  Are you working to hone your writing and your “voice”?  Are you staying on topic so people can begin to understand your brand through your blog?

All these and other factors are affecting visitors’ willingness to reach out to you, to discuss you in their own space.  Their time and resources are limited, just like yours are, so you have to give them good reasons to want to give you that pingback.

A final note on SEO and Pingbacks

Keep in mind when you’re linking to someone else’s post in your blog entry that they’re going to receive a pingback notification.  If they visit your site, what will they see?  Will they want to leave that link up in their comments, or delete it?

Even though Pingbacks and Trackbacks are no-follow links by default, they’re still an effective method of building your link love, which is all-important to your SEO efforts.

So make sure when you link to someone that you do so in a thoughtful manner that will entice them to leave the link, and maybe even write about you in return.

One other thing about pingbacks and SEO – don’t enable both pingbacks and trackbacks on your blog. If you get both from the same reference, it can make your blog look spammy, which – as you should know – Pappa Google doesn’t like. Pick which one you prefer and stick with it.

You are your pingbacks.  Make them count!

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We finished round one of the contest winner selection and have the following 10 finalists from our Win A Website Design Makeover drawing:

Katie Bohannon

Hillary McDaniels

Leanne Denny

Mike Young

Kristi Ogle

Nate Hoffmeister

Alicia Herzbrun

Eddie Goins

Suzanne McNeil

Margaretanne Ingle

The next step is a careful review to select the winner from this list of 10.  We will be contacting the grand prize winner personally before announcing on our blog and via social media.  We hope to be able to announce the final winner on or before this Thursday (3/15/12).

But wait!  Even if you are not one of the 10 above or the grand prize winner, if you entered our contest during the contest period, you will still receive a special discounted website offer from VIEO Design.

More details coming soon!

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Thank you to everyone who entered our first Website Design Makeover contest and everyone who helped us spread the word.  We had many great entries and are in the process of selecting a winner according to the Contest Rules and Terms.  We will contact the winner directly and post results here on our blog.

In addition to awarding one winner a fully-customized WordPress website and digital branding package,  all other qualified entries will be eligible for a special discounted offer.

Thanks for your patience and look for more news coming soon!

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Thank you to my amazing VIEO Design™ team! VIEO entered three websites into the 2012 ADDY® awards and received website design awards for all three!

• One Gold ADDY® Award for Marc Nelson Denim
• Two Silver ADDY® Awards for:
• Winchester Family Dentistry (a DMG project)
• Cabinet Conversions of Tennessee

Thank you to our amazing clients like Marcus Hall, Eddie Hopps, Bob Hertwig, and Justin Goodbread who inspire us daily to create beautifully designed websites that are also rich in function.

Thank you to our friend Susie Norris and the AAF Knoxville leadership team for putting on such a great ADDYs® Gala.  It is obvious that much planning and preparation went into this event and fun was had by all!

Knoxville’s 2012 ADDY® Award Gala celebrated the talents of our local advertising community with a  1920s themed Gala held at the Crowne Plaza.  Our congrats go out to all the winners.  As noted on the AAF Knoxville article posted today, the Knoxville ADDY® Awards are the first tier of the three-tiered National ADDY® Awards.  The ADDYs® are the advertising industry’s largest recognition of creative excellence.

We were honored to be part of the Knoxville AAF and can’t wait to be involved in more.

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You are your Grace under fire.  And we’re all under fire on a regular basis, aren’t we?

That just seems to be the nature of life and business.  It comes at you, and it doesn’t stop just because you already had other things to deal with.  It just keeeeeps on coming.  How you deal with it is who you are in the business community, and out of it.

It’s funny how good things can mix with bad; hard with easy; ups with downs.  Last week we won some awards for our websites (woot! – more on that tomorrow from our totally talented Holly Yalove).  We also had to deal with some family sorrows and the normal day to day business woes.

That’s the way it goes.

We all deal with the trials and tribulations differently.  I try to remember my many blessings, and what’s special about each of them.  A few deep breaths helps, too, and I enjoy decompressing to the sounds of the little stream that runs through our office park.

Personal coping mechanisms aside, as I mentioned earlier, it’s very helpful to have an awesome team to help motivate and support each other as we deal with the difficult days or weeks, or even years.

Finally, I also try to remember – as best I can – that people probably won’t notice grace under fire, because they don’t know about the fires.  But they will notice when we’re not graceful in the firing line.  When we blow up, our frustration and anger can spill into other people’s business lives.  And that can hurt our reputations and cause others to have to draw on their own possibly-low reserves of Grace.

May you have Grace under Fire this week, and whenever you need it in your year to come.

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You are a great team.  You work well together, you have fun, you have a common mission – truly something special.

In this particular case, I’m speaking with high hopes that this is in fact the case for you, because I know from first-hand experience how awesome it is to be part of a great team – it friggin ROCKS!

This week, the VIEO team is going full steam ahead on the Website Design Makeover Contest, which is a part of our sponsorship of Knoxville’s Fashion Week.  If you haven’t checked out that contest yet, do!  It’s an awesome opportunity to take your web presence from average to awesome for free.  Plus, we’re working on a special deal to offer just to people who enter.  More to come on that tomorrow.

In the mean time, may you and your team be happy, of one purpose, and successful.

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