wordpress tips & tricks

Green Bee Web Consulting | www.greenbee-web.com | WordPress Tips & Tricks

WORDPRESS TIPS & TRICKSBe more efficient, have more fun and make your life easier


INTRODUCTIONS


Real Quick: Who I Am (and why you should bother listening to anything I have to say)

1. My name is Rachel2. Been building websites for over 15 years3. Worked at a Boston nonprofit (and startups,

and corporations)4. Left last fall to work for myself (yay!)5. Work with my awesome partner Clare in

Chicago to build WordPress websites for B Corps, nonprofits and those with a social or environmental mission

6. I’m a co-organizer for the Boston Girl Geek Dinners

Skills (alphabet soup) open source CMS, UX, SEO/SEM, HTML/CSS, OMG!

Find me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelmurray

http://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelmurray






ADMIN FEATURESStuff you might not know about already


Easily ignored features• At a Glance, Activity, Quick

Draft

• Screen Options are amazing!• Editing pages/posts/media• Viewing lists of

pages/posts/media

• Help can actually help

• Revisions


Settings

• GENERAL • Changing the name,

admin email and URL of your site in one fell swoop

• Time zone change

• READING• Change your homepage• Change default post #s

per page• Search Engine Hiding

(useful for dev sites)


Settings

• DISCUSSION• Change default

comment settings• Change default

pingbacks/trackbacks

• PERMALINKS• Critical for when you

launch your site


MAKING PLUGINS LESS SCARY


How to find good plugins• Wordpress.org (popular

http://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/popular/)• Codecanyon• Google


WordPress.org

Look at• Last updated• Downloads• Ratings• Compatibility


When to use paid, When to use freeUse Free Use Paid

Most of the time Rarely

Basic features Unique features

When you don’t need much support If you want to talk to a developer

Some of my favorite pluginsName What it Does

WordPress SEO by Yoast

Easy SEO configurations

WordPress Backup to Dropbox

Backup your site to Dropbox for free!

WP Stripe Want to have a donation form on your site? Stripe makes it easy, no need for all the crazy payment gateways!

WordPress HTTPS If you’re donating you need SSL. But not on every page. Limit it to just the money pages!

Relevannsi Make your site search more effective

Gravity Forms For fancy form creation

All in One WP Security Emphasizes best practices for basic WP security

Search & Replace Standard Search Replace tool

WP Smush It Make your images small!



Plugin Love

You are playing around with plugins. Awesome.

But when you decide you don’t want them anymore, kill ‘em!

Update them pretty please! Your website will thank you by not being hacked


THEMES


When to use paid, When to use freeUse Free Use Paid

Rarely Most of the time

If you don’t need much When you want to do anything cool

When you’re okay looking like a basic WP site

When you want to look like a website that ‘isn’t just a blog’

When you don’t need much support If you want to talk to a developer


How to find good themes• Basic free themes – WordPress.org• Premium themes – Themeforest.com

• Look at reviews & stars• Look at feedback &

support• Play with the demo• Most are around $50• Don’t limit yourself

to just nonprofit themes!


SECURITYIt’s important and not too scary


Easy things to do• No admin username• Limit login plugin• Keep your plugins,

themes and core updated

• Back up your site


AWESOME RESOURCESSome amazing tools that will make your life easier


Image Resources – Free and good!• You can get beautiful professional images for free. But

they’re limited in scope. That said, if you’re an environmental np, you are SET.

• www.pickupimage.com• www.littlevisuals.co• www.unsplash.com• www.superfamous.com

• Can you shell out a little bit? Go to stocksy.com!

http://www.pickupimage.com/

http://www.littlevisuals.co/

http://www.unsplash.com/

http://www.superfamous.com/


Hosting Love• Site5• SiteGround • Media Temple


Link Love – Some favorite resources (in no particular order)URL What it is

http://wordpress.org/news/ The official WordPress blog

http://wptavern.com/ All things WP

http://managewp.com/blog All things WP (best free plugins of the month!)

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ Tech & WP

http://www.wpmayor.com/ All things WP

http://wordpress.tv/ Watch WP talks

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/ SEO blog

http://moz.com/blog SEO blog

http://thenextweb.com/ Round up of tech news

http://www.nten.org Nonprofit Technology Network


Other tools to make your life easierWhat it’s called What it is

Rapportive See your network in your Gmail

BrowserStack Test in multiple browsers online

Awesome Screenshot Free chrome extension to take awesome screengrabs and modify them

ImgFlip Need to make a point? Do it with image meme templates!

Asana Best project management tool evar… and it’s free!

CodeSchool Learn code!

IFTTT Make your stuff do other stuff automated (pro-tip… search for wordpress!)

Unroll.me Unsubscribe and roll up your email!


QUESTIONS? Let’s do this!

wordpress tips & tricks

Technology

wordpress tips trickshow

wordpress tips trickseasily

wordpress tips trickssome

wordpress tips tricksfind

wordpress tips trickslink

wordpress tips trickswhen

scarygreen bee web consulting

hackedgreen bee web