Style Guide 100Getting the Most of Out of WordPress

September, 2009

2

Pay Special Attention to Headlines

» Headlines are super important to Google. Always try to use keywords and clear descriptions. Don’t forget RSS.

» Okay:

» Much Better:

3

Pay Special Attention to Headlines

» Don’t use all caps. The center rail blog loop was optimized to look best with standard “first letter capitalization” of headlines. Try not to write “WHY IS RYAN ADAMS SO AWESOME?” when “When Is Ryan Adams So Awesome” gets the same idea across in a kinder, gentler way.

» Much Better:

» Not Great:

4

Always Backdate When Migrating Content

» Be sure to include an accurate Publish date on old content that you’re porting into the WordPress

» This helps to keep the system clean and hierarchical

This Date

Should be:

May 19, 2007The 2007

Weenie

Roast

5

Don’t Forget to Use the More Tag

» When writing a post, make sure to insert the “More” tag at the point you want the post to break

» The “More Tag”:

This is the

“More”

buttonIt inserts a “More”

page break on

your home page

blog loop.

6

If You Don’t Use the “More Tag”, This Happens…

A single post fills up

the entire home

page blog loop.

7

It’s Boring, but Spellchecking Helps

» Be sure to spell check every post. Wordpress just integrated “After the Deadline,” a spellcheck technology which makes things easier than ever.

It catches

mistakes!

Spellcheck

baby!

» Watch this video: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/atd-wpcom/

8

Categories and Tags

» A post titled “Last Night at Burger King” might be filed under the “Dinner” category, but could have tags such as, “burger, chicken fries, chocolate shake, dr. pepper”.

» Always categorize and add tags when creating or migrating a post. They help organize content and help search engines find it.

» The stronger and more consistent the tagging and categorization of things across sites, the better the relating of content will work for the entire platform.

9

What Time is It? Pay Attention to Pub Dates

» The Post Timestamp lets you define the date you want the post to appear as published. The timestamp defaults to the current date of when the post was first written.

» If you’re front-loading content for the weekend, be sure to date it accordingly. Similarly, if you’re migrating old content, back date it.

10

Fake the Authors If Necessary

» Even if somebody else is posting for them, make sure the author name is from the “writer” of the post.

Change

author as

necessary

11

Try to Always Host Content on WordPress

» CBS has unlimited file storage through it’s contract with Wordpress/Automattic. They also serve up content very quickly and inexpensively. Always try to host your content there, rather than on a legacy server.