Category Archives: web content

Simple WordPress Backend information

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Some the websites that Creative Automaton Design creates these days Most of the websites, single webpages, and web developments Creative Automaton Design make for clients use the powerful CMS WordPress. And though every client who is not comepletly familiar with the way WordPress is setup gets a crash course in how it works I thought it best to spend this weeks blog post on explaining a few WordPress nouences.

WordPress WordPress Posts

At the Top of the Dashboard right after you login there is a sidebar to the left which has many links to the functions of WordPress. The “Posts” link takes you to a listing of your most recent blog posts. These posts can be organized by date or given an order of importance by you.

Making a new post is as simple as clicking the “Add Post” link at the top of the page and a new post page will be ready for you to add text, images or even videos. When finished click the ” Publish” button to make the post live on your site.

WordPress pagesWordPress Pages

Pages in WordPress are exactly like posts yet they serve to put permanent content on your site which can then be used for menus to make your content easily accessible. You create WordPress pages in the same way as posts but by clicking the “Pages” link from the dashboard, and then publishing the page when finished.

WordPress widgetsWidgets in WordPress

Widgets in WordPress serve to add custom content to the sidebar of your website in a clean no fuss manager. To add a widget hover you mouse over the “appearance” link on the dashboard to reveal the widgets link then click on the “Widget” link to go to the homepage of your widgets. On this page you can now drag and drop any number of widgets to specified sidebar locations which are shown on the right side of the page. If the widgets or sidebar locations are hidden you can reveal them by clicking the down arrow on each widget or sidebar. Widgets and sidebars need to be saved once dropped or re-arranged to make them live on your WordPress site.

WordPress Trick

Logging into and out of WordPress:

Now we all can see log-in and register links at the top, side, or bottom of most websites  but in the case of WordPress these can sometimes not be enough. A nice trick when looking for a shealthly placed login is to add this ” /wp-admin” to the end of any WordPress sites addess (i.e. www.sample.com/wp-admin ) This only works if the file structure is simple and placed in the root of the hosting server.  Give it a try the next time you are looking for a way to login or register but someone forgot to mention where it is located.

6 best ways to increase SEO

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Six ways to get better seo resultsA search engine can be a fickle mistress. She temps you with the ease of access to millions of customers and even the ability to have yours listed among the most important in the world. But alas it is not meant to be if your web presence isn’t setup for her little search bots to find your site.  So here are six important things to do for S.E.O.

Number 1: Back links

You may be a loner but on the net you need people. People who link back to your site, and do it often. Whether paid or organic this is number one, so get cracking.

Number 2: Content

A website without content is like a business without a product. They both cannot exist for very long. Just as important as back linking if you don’t have meaningful and relevant content on your site you need to get some fast. Google lists this as an incredibly high priority. But be aware Google isn’t in it for you they just want to point people to information. So make sure what content you do have is relevant only to your business.

Number 3: Page titles

The titles of pages on your site are your first impression to search engines and have to say what your site is about in just a few words. It’s a difficult task worth a few hours of your time. A well thought out title system for your pages can make or break your website. Make a great first impression.

Number 4: Headings, Alt tags & accessibility

Sure you can see your site. What about the millions out there on the web with disabilities? No. Well then your site may look good but does it read well. And if it doesn’t you might be in trouble. Though not as important as the first three listed in this article. Having correctly labeled tags for headings, images, and descriptions can help search engines placing your content in search. Which scratches your back every time someone searches for information that your site provides.

Number 5: Keywords

You need key search terms or keywords in you pages. These words are the ones people search for when they use Google, Bing, or Yahoo. These trigger the search engines to show your site and are better when placed in blocks of content. Keywords for what your business is about can be found by using the tons of keyword tools out there. Best of all most of them are free! Wordtracker and Google Keyword tool are the best.

Number 6: No flash

Its whimsical and shiny but flash isn’t the ideal medium for websites. Now you my say have there are tons of flash sites out there that get tons of hits. So what’s the big deal? Well the trouble of flash isn’t that it attracts visitors but that to a website just starting out. It will take a viral video, viral game or something of a phenomena to reach the amount of traffic you may want, a kind of web gamble. Additionally flash like images only shows one kind of information what it is not what it is made of. And search robots are smart they don’t invest energy if they don’t know what something is filled with.  They would lead to bad searches and a spam filled net, something that they despise. So stay away from flash, and use it only when absolutely necessary.

WoAhhhhhh! That took longer than expected but I hope that it helps you out there understand S.E.O. better. This will bring you business on your site.

Now in reality there are actually hundreds of criteria for a sites search and is a complicated set of terms but these work as a great primer.