WordPress.com or WordPress.org?

There are two flavours of WordPress:

WordPress.com – Sites are hosted on WordPress’s servers, and have a web address such as “mywebsite.wordpress.com” – Very easy to set up, but you are limited to their basic tools, and you don’t have much control over customisation

Stand-alone WordPress – From here, you can download a version of the WordPress software and install it on your own server. This gives you full control over your site, and will allow you to have a site with a web address of your choosing. This is the preferred option, and the one we’ll explore on this page.

Installing WordPress

You’ll need an account with a web hosting company that supports WordPress. If you don’t yet have an account, 123 Reg offer a basic hosting service that has WordPress installed ready for you to use.

Each hosting company is different, so we can’t provide a full step-by-step guide that will work in all situations for all hosts.

The first step is to create a SQL database – This is where WordPress stores all of the content, pages, settings, etc). From your web hosting control panel, create a database, and take a note of the database name, plus the username and password for that database – you’ll need all three bits of information later

With the database set up, you now need to install WordPress:

• Download a copy from http://www.wordpress.org/www.wordpress.org
• Unzip the contents to a folder on your computer
• You’ll find a file called “wp-config.sample.php” in the files you’ve downloaded – You need to rename this to “wp-config.php”
• Open wp-config.php with a text editor (such as Windows notepad)
• You will need to edit three lines in this file with information you got when you created your QSL database – these are: ‘DB_NAME’ , ‘DB_USER’ and ‘DB_PASSWORD’ – Add the details in and save the file

Editing the WordPress wp-config.php file

• Using an FTP program (such as FileZilla), upload all of the WordPress files (in the original folders) to your website – Normally you would install to the root of your documents folder on your server. Once complete, you should see something like this:

Example of a typical WordPress installation structure

• That’s normally all you need to do to get WordPress installed. The final part is setting the actual site up.
• Open your web browser and type in the address for your website – You are aiming to get to the page www.yourwebsitename.co.uk/index.php , which is the index of the WordPress site. When you visit for the first time, you’ll be prompted to create a username and password for WordPress, then you’re on your way.

That’s a very basic guide on how to get WordPress installed on your own server, to hopefully point you in the right direction.

Need more help?

• If you’re struggling to get WordPress installed and running, you can first try to contact your web hosting company. They should be able to assist
• If this is too much hassle, or your provider can’t help you, then EssexMax is available to assist on a consultancy basis. We can help with installation, setup, customisation and management of WordPress. Contact us with your requirements, and we’ll see if we can help. Typically we work on an hourly rate.
• Need some help using WordPress? See Blogging for WordPress (An evening course offered by South Essex College)

To date, we’ve covered Facebook, Twitter (and a live Periscope!) plus LinkedIn. This week we looked at:

Instagram and Pinterest

Specialist platforms that have their uses, particularly for on online presence with a focus on images.

YouTube

Definitely an opportunity for growing your online userbase. We looked at channels, subscriptions, video editing tools, captions and handling comments, as well as what stats are available

Youtube Analytics – Who’s watching you!

Doing it wrong

One of the more interesting discussions of the evening related to demonstrating some of the ways that things can go wrong. Some of the class have had bad experiences of online reviews and inappropriate messages, and there’s concern from some about brand damage.

In recent weeks, a real-life example of a brand mis-managing social media has affected me, and the course discussion gave me the chance to dissect the problem in real-time, to highlight an example of an organisation handling a problem badly – as with all things, there’s a right and a wrong way to handle social media, and here’s an example of how not to do it.

Cooperative Promotion

First, some background. One of the online projects I’m involved with involves managing a community website, with around 500 users interacting via a WordPress community site, and social media. The site targets a niche market in a small geographical area. There are a dozen or so local groups in the target area, and the community site that I help with, tries to serve the market, whilst supporting the smaller geographic groups. In general, this works well, as the community site promotes the activities of the smaller local groups, providing promotion that the smaller groups may not be able to achieve.

One of the smaller groups prefers to operate as its own walled garden, without links to adjacent geographical groups, and elects not to partake in the wider community site’s promotion. As we have discussed throughout the course and as part of SEO, the more links and online interaction, the better. The following graph from 2013/14 demonstrates the impact that being part of a co-operative network can bring. The following, from ranking service Alexa, shows the dark blue group dropped from a rank of 5 million to over 12 million as a result of becoming a walled garden. The group represented by the light blue line had traditionally been performing poorly, but by joining the community, were able to gain and the expense of the former group, laregly through a better Google ranking and use of social media.

Community membership – Alexa ranking chart

You’re barred!!

In recent weeks, a real-life example of a brand mis-managing social media has crossed my path, and last night’s course discussion gave me the chance to dissect the problem in the classroom. This highlights an example of an organisation handling a problem badly – as with all things, there’s a right and a wrong way to handle social media, and here’s an example of how not to do it:

A negative comment, made in jest, was placed on the community website by one of the regulars. One of the local groups (or more likely, one individual) took exception to the comment, and elected to block them on Twitter.

As was discussed on our course, this is a largely pointless exercise. Twitter is a “broadcast” service, and so a blocked user can access content by simply logging out briefly.

In the face of a social media post that you don’t like, there are several options:

1. Ignore the offending comment (usually best)
2. Challenge the comment (direct response, counter-claim or defence)
3. Force removal of the comment (Difficult and dangerous – See Streisand Effect)

Blocking the Twitter account of course achieved nothing. The offending message remained (unchallenged), and would have been lost down the timeline within 24 hours anyway.

What the act of blocking has done, is prevented the community site that I contribute to, from promoting the other group’s events and activities. Moreover, the reaction when the community discovered what had happened, it highlighted the foolishness of the ban to a much wider audience than saw the offending post in the first place.

A single social media message was posted announcing that our group had been blocked – and within a matter of days, it had reached 800 people on Twitter and 500 people on Facebook, as well as hundreds of others as a result of the tweet being discussed in an online forum. It’s been shared, retweeted, discussed and copied. The message received over 50 comments, largely condemning the action of the blocking group, and supporting the blocked group and the original poster.

Blocked Message – Facebook Stats

Blocked Message – Twitter Stats

As hopefully came across as part of the classroom discussion, the old adage of “all PR is good PR”, is true to an extent. Close to 2000 people (in a tiny niche market) saw that site A had blocked Site B, raising awareness for both brands. What it also shows is that with social media, the law of unexpected consequences so often applies – and it pays to know your audience.

The final week of the social media course is next week – a wrap-up on what’s been learnt so far, some brand analysis tools, and a workshop on how to grown a community.

Pete

Related links

• Thanks to Paul F for reminding me of the HMV Twitter classic: HMV Workers Twitter Feed Sacking

Here’s a summary of course progress so far:

Getting Started:

The first week saw us as a group discussing the merits of using social media and looking at each student’s particular areas. We have some keen to gain a broader understandimg of the world of social media, some planning projects that may make use of Twitter and Facebook, and some with established online identities looking to build a larger and more loyal audience.

Facebook

The current king of social media, so not ssurprising that this is a big focus. We looked at the following:

• The Facebook basics
• Setting up a Facebook Page
• Demonstration of Facebook Adverts
• Events, groups and apps
• Demonstration of demographic targeting
• Stats and post performance

Facebook Engagement Stats – Who’s reading what

It’s important to create a Facebook page for your online business or project – as opposed to a Facebook account for a fake person

A club I used to be be a member of lost 2 years of its Facebook history by creating an account with the name “{clubname} Club” – As “Club” is not a common surname, it was only a matter of time before it was deleted. One of yesterday’s class has had a similar experience.

The ability to target on Facebook makes it a very powerful tool. With so many users freely telling Facebook their personal details, preferences, likes and dislikes, getting a message out there via a Facebook page is a great way to get a message in front of the right audience, in a way that’s not possible with other online solutions.

Week 3 of the course sees the focus shift to Twitter.

• Search Engine Optimisation
• Maximising your website
• Blogging for Business / Working with WordPress

In 2015, a new course was added to the portfolio – Social Media Marketing.

Here’s the promotional information that accompanies the course:

Our Social Media Marketing course will give you an idea about how to use social media effectively to promote your business (products or services) online and how to use social media for your career growth. Social media has now become an important part of our lives, and is set to become a major part of how we interact with society in the future. Our course offers an overview of current social media trends, social media tools, the different types of services available, and the ways that today’s online services could be used to enhance your career, business, or your leisure activities. The course helps those new to the subject to build and nurture an online presence, and for those already promoting via social media, valuable information on the tools and techniques available to communicate effectively online.

The course covers the following:

• An overview of current social media trends
• Facebook as a promotional tool
• Promoting using Twitter
• Networking with LinkedIn
• Tracking and analytics
• Engaging with your audience
• An overview of other social media services and tools
• Online promotion tips and tricks

If this is something that might be of interest, you can find more details and availability on the college website:

www.southessex.ac.uk/course/social-media-marketing

The course ran for the first time in 2015, and the second course starts in March 2016.

I’ll update you as the course progresses!

Pete

The start of the second session started with a recap of what was covered the prvious week, namely:

• An introduction to WordPress
• What WordPress can do
• Creating an account with wordpress.com
• Posts and pages

As the start of this session, it was clear that most of my victims had spent some time playing with their test blog sites, as many now had a good collection of posts and images. After a quick recap, it was on to the main topics for the second session:

• Images – How to insert images, move them around, and make sure they’re tagged correctly with an ‘alt’ tag
• Blog design – A look at how to select a theme and what can be customised
• Menus – How to add new items, customise and create sub-menus
• Widgets explained – a look at some of the more common widgets fouind in the wordpress.com environment

During the short coffee-break, the subject of making money from a blog came up – something that seemed to be of interest to everyone on the course. That let to a discussion, and later, a demonstration, of the following:

• Google Adsense ads
• Behavioural re-targeting
• In-context ads
• Amazon Associates

There’s a summary of ways to get started making money from a website here: making money from your website

Hopefully, the candidates on the course are enjoying what’s on offer, and learning stuff. Next week, we’ll be looking more closely at the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org, and diving deeper into Widgets.

The links on this page will be referred to throughout the course, and are updated as the course goes along.

Blogging with WordPress – Week One

The basics of blogging and WordPress, plus setting up a blog.

• WordPress.com – The place to get started
• WordPress.org – Run WordPress on your own server for maximum control and flexibility

Blogging with WordPress – Week Two

Finishing the creation of a basic WordPress blog, themes, then looking at adding content and targeting your audience

Blogging with WordPress – Week Three

With your blog in place, ways to promote and market your content

Blogging with WordPress – Week Four

Monitoring your blogs performance, adding bells-and-whistles, and some highly recommended tips and plug-ins

• Hosting a WordPress.org installation:- Take a look at the low-entry, easy setup offered by the 123-Reg WordPress Hosting service
• Also, try TopCashBack and Quidco for their affiliate scheme.

Wrap-up

If you’ve enjoyed the course, you may want to consider the Search Engine Optimisation Course, or the Maximising Your Website Course, both of which include other ways to get more from your website.

“I’m wondering about how business websites would rank if their webpage predominantly comprises of images. What does a business do if they have a website with not much textual content?

Am I correct in thinking in that situation a business should have an integrated blog in order to increase the amount of keywords are within their webpage? I’m beginning to plan on launching a lead-generation website which will probably not contain much in the means of textual content.”

Sites without much text

Sites that are are rich in relevant text tend to do better than those that don’t have much in the way of text. However, sites will little text can still do well, especially in the following circumstances:

• If there aren’t many competitors, a “thin” site can do OK in search engine rankings (it might be a struggle though
• If the site doesn’t rely on Google or Bing for its traffic, then SEO doesn’t matter too much (perhaps using social networking)

If you have a site that wants to get noticed by the search engine, then having rich text about the subject material, and getting links from relevant sites is key.

Things to do

If your site is all about images, and you have little text, then there are a things to do:

• Make sure that all of your images have good ALT tag descriptions, so that Google knows what they are
• Make sure the Meta tags, headers and whatever text you have on the page is accurate and relevant
• Consider adding as much text as you can – if you can’t add it on the page itself for aesthetic reasons, then somewhere else on the site is a good idea

In summary, it is possible for sites without much content to rank well, but only where the site has done a good job of telling the search engines what the page content is about, and typically where there isn’t a lot of competition from sites that have lots of rich, relevant content.

Your suggestion 0f having a frequently-updated blog with relevant content alongside the image-heavy part of the site is certainly a good idea for giving the search engines a reason to keep visiting you. If that’s not an option, and your site doesn’t need to rely on texts or search engines, then you m,ay need to look at other ways to get visitors, such as social media or advertising.

Why would you need to redirect a page?

There are several reasons – here are a few:

• To handle a dead page. For example, you have a page that talks about a product, but now need to remove that product. You want to redirect your visitors to an alternative product
• You want to hand out a short web address – For example, essexmax.co.uk/seo , which redirects to a different location
• You need to move a page or a site

The handle these kinds of situation, the best way of doing this is with what’s called a “Permanent Redirect” or a “301 Redirect”. These will direct your site visitors to the correct location invisibly, and are also instructions to a search engine that a page have moved and the traffic (and page authority) should be moved to the new home

How do I redirect?

There are several methods, some better than others. Most web servers run on either Apache/Linux, or Windows. Both platforms have different ways of handling redirects. The EssexMax team is far more experienced with Apache/Linux, so here, we’ll explain how to handle a redirect using that system. If you need help with a Windows system, please see IIS HTTP Redirects

301 Redirect on an Apache / Linus Web server

Redirects are handled inside a text file called .htaccess – Your serve may have one of these in the root folder. If not, it’s a case of creating one with a text editor such as Windows Notepad, adding details of the redirects, and uploading it. Note that the filename “,htaccess” is all lowercase and has a dot at the front.

Here is a screenshot showing the root directory of a web site, and you’ll see that .htaccess is the first item in the file list

Screenshot of a website root folder

The .htaccess is a pretty important file, and it’s checked each time someone surfs to your site. You need to be careful when playing around with this file, and if you make changes, you need to test the changes carefully. It’s easy to make a small mistake, and redirect all of your traffic to a dead page, so do handle with care.

Here is a screenshot of a basic .htaccess file. Here, it’s being edited with Windows Notepad and shows three directs:

htaccess Redirect 301 example

The EssexMax website uses a redirect, and you can try it for yourself

If you were to type in essexmax.co.uk/seo into a browser, it will redirect to a different page – in this example, to http://www.essexmax.co.uk/southend-seo-course-notes.html

The code to make that work, from the .htaccess file is:

Redirect 301 /seo http://www.essexmax.co.uk/southend-seo-course-notes.html

This translates to Permanently redirect any requests for the page /seo to the following web address

You can also use this command to redirect a folder, or even an entire site, to a new location.

There’s quite a lot to redirects and to .htaccess files, and this page is just a basic overview. If you’re after some more detailed information on how to do this correctly and safely, see the guide at http://301redirects.net/

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On this course, a smaller-than-usual group, but an enthusiastic one. Thanks to Kay, Wioletta, Maria and Kristian for coming along to the course, and listening to my rather croaky voice for two and a half hours of the SEO evening course.

All four attendees have sites in the business-to-business, or business-to-consumer space, and have a handle on how their sites perform and how they are hoping to improve. I have to up my game too, as one of the group has been to two other SEO courses… I hope I measure up as good value for money.

After the basic introductions and discussion of the SEO basics, we moved on to webstats, wrapping up this first week by looking at measuring site stats with Google Analytics.

We took a quick look at the latest tool to join the Analytics suite, the “who’s on your site” Real-time monitor, a feature seemingly borrowed from our favourite stats package, Clicky. Nice to be able to see who’s on your site in real-time, including a geographical marker. Hopefully, everyone in the course will be sorting out a Google Analytics account over the next 7 days to take advantage of some of the tools offered by this Google freebie (More on site stats)

Screenshot of Google Analytics Real-time in action

One of the things that I enjoy about teaching this short SEO course, is that I’m always learning too. My lesson for the night, and in fact my homework, is to look into Speed Networking Saturdays on Twitter – Opportunities to make use of Twitter to share links, repost sites and exchange details – I’ll certainly be giving it a try.

Kay, Wioletta, Maria and Kristian… if you happen to be reading this, be good to know you’re checking out the notes, and also to see if you have any questions. If you have a spare minute, please add a comment in the box below!

Related posts

• Southend SEO Course Notes

This is always a tricky area, and there’s no real right or wrong answer here. The conflict is that you have to decide whether to write for Google, or for your human visitors. The official advice is that you write for humans first, and if necessary, review the pages with SEO in mind to help the search engines out. Here is some general guidance on the subject:

Local or National?

In this scenario, we’re assuming that you are based in Essex and get most of your business from the Essex area, but you also get jobs in London, Kent, Suffolk and anywhere else you can drive to and from in a day.

As for the wording on the website, it comes down to how you’re hoping your site will get you business – If a key aim is to generate new business from the local area, then ‘local’ has to play a big part in what’s on the site. Ask yourself which you’d prefer:

• Not being first in the search results for “Fridge Maintenance in Essex”, or
• Being first for “Fridge Maintenance in Essex”, and having to let other potential customers know (online or when they enquire) that you also fix fridges in Kent

Understand Your Audience

If you’re hoping to use Google to attract local business, then you need to make sure that the pages you’re trying to optimise contain some local elements. You have to try to get into the mind-set of the searcher. If they are likely to be searching for “fridge repairs essex” in Google, then you need to make sure that the best page on your site contains those words and ideally in that order.

This is where sometimes it helps to get the advice from a novice. Asking someone what they’d put into Google if they were looking to find someone to fix their fridge should yield a few ideas as to how people might search. You’ll find all sorts of combinations:

• “Broken fridge in Southend”
• “Local fridge repairer”
• “Fridge fixing companies in Essex”
• “Kitchen equipment repairs in Leigh-on-Sea”

Come up with a list of a few ways that you think people may try to find you, and bear it in mind when writing or reviewing your site contact

Still not sure?

If you reach a point where you can’t decide whether to go local (for Google), or regional (for the humans), there are a few compromises, for example:

1. Have two pages – One page that talks about recent jobs that you’ve done in Essex (including names of towns as well as the county name), and a more general page about your range of services
2. Find a compromise sentence that works for both, for example “EssexMax Fridge Maintenance is based in South Essex, but we fix fridges all around the country. Whether you live in Southend or Stowmarket, Basildon or Birmingham, we can help with repair, service and help with parts for your kitchen fridge or freezer – Take a look at our Testimonial Page to find out where our team has been working recently”
3. The competition – Type in a few searches into Google. Try a few different phrases such as “essex fridge repair” and some general “freezer maintenance” and see who comes up. See how your competition has addressed the problem and what’s worked for them. If it’s got them to Number One, the same solution could well work for you too

Google and Bing are pretty smart and the best advice is to write with the human in mind first and foremost, then make a few tweaks to make sure you give the search engines a helping hand

If a lot of business comes in from Essex, Kent, Suffolk – and you’d like more, make sure those areas are featured on the site in a few strategic places. Adding in mentions of Norfolk, Canterbury and London will give humans the impression that you’re not tied to a small area.