I’ve enjoyed partnering with you to bring your website to life! To make sure your WordPress website is user-friendly I’ve created this library of walkthrough videos and handouts you can easily reference.
As always, please reach out to me via email (hello@olivefoxdesign.com) if you have any questions. Depending on the nature of your request, I’ll send over some helpful resources, a new video walkthrough, provide a quote for additional services, or point you in the direction of someone better suited to help you.
This video will give you an overview of what the behind-the-scenes of your website looks like. There are a lot of moving parts, but I’ve broken it down to give you an overview of each one. Be sure to check out the other sections within this “course” as they will go more in-depth on the how-to and best practices for each of the items you will be maintaining.
To get your website up and running efficiently, I have set up accounts specific to your website. This lesson goes through an overview of each of these accounts.
Email for Administration
Reference your handoff email/document for your login and initial password. For security reasons, be sure to change this password and set up multifactor authentication.
If you transfer all of the linked logins to another email, instructions from google on closing a Gmail account are linked here.
WordPress, Hosting + Domains
Domain– address for your website, renews annually
Host– land/house equivalent for your website, renews annually
WordPress– the software used to build your website (architect/interior design), open source free
Maintenance Account- ManageWP
Google Site Tools Connections
Using the “tech” email I’ve provided within your transition documents, I’ve connected Google Site Kit to website. This will give you access to A LOT of data. It can be overwhelming, so ease into it and pick 1-2 metrics to learn about and focus on at first. Don’t forget to pair the data with strategy- I’ve provided an example in the video.
Site Kit provides a more condensed summary use the following links to access the Google dashboards with a lot more of the data presented:
Google Analytics- https://analytics.google.com
Google Search Console- https://search.google.com/u/7/search-console/welcome
Pre-Installed Plugins
Here is an overview of the plugins I typically use when building out each website. Refer to your site specific walkthrough for any not listed within here. Also jump to the “best practices for adding plugins” if you are working on adding to your site.
Elementor + Elementor Pro
Elementor is the page builder we have used to bring your website to life.
From the Developer: The Elementor Website Builder has it all: drag and drop page builder, pixel perfect design, mobile responsive editing, and more.
From the Developer- Elementor Pro: Elevate your designs and unlock the full power of Elementor. Gain access to dozens of Pro widgets and kits, Theme Builder, Pop Ups, Forms and WooCommerce building capabilities.
See the content section for the video on editing content (photos, text, etc) from the Elementor Page Builder.
ManageWP Plugin
Description from the developer: Updates, backups, 1-click login, migrations, security and more, on one dashboard.
Visit the user accounts section for details on how your website was initially connected to ManageWP. See the Website Maintenance Lesson for a deeper dive into the power this plugin brings to your website.
Yoast SEO
Description from the Developer: The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.
This video goes through some of the dashboard settings. Within the Content Creation section, I’ll dive more into how to leverage and maximize Yoast as you are creating posts.
Google Site Kit
Retained in this section to provide a complete list of the pre-installed plugins for your site. See the accounts section for an overview of these tools.
SG Optimizer
From the Developer: This plugin will link your WordPress application with all the performance optimizations provided by SiteGround.
Click here for the plugin tutorial from SiteGround.
Best Practices for Adding Plugins
Adding your own plug-ins
Once you have identified a potential plugin that suits your needs and you’d like to install on your website, make sure to run through the following list. This will help identify if the software is supported, updated, and will not pose a significant security or performance risk to your website.
- Plugin Ratings– As a rule of thumb I prefer to use plugins with a 4-star rating or higher.
- Plugin Reviews– After reading reviews does it seem like the users have had a good experience, it is easy to set up and there aren’t any obvious issues? Specifically read any lower ratings to idenitify if this plugin will suit your needs or provide insight into any potential problems.
- Last Update- This is a good indicator if the plugin is supported by the developer. If it has been updated recently (within a few months) then it’s a great sign the plugin is actively maintained. This active maintenance of a plugin will reduce the amount of bugs or security vulnerabilies that could potentially arise. An engaged develope also means there is a potental contact to help if you run into any issues.
- Active Installations- Generally the higher the number it is, the better the plugin. Keep in mind a more niche plugin (like Elementor DB) would not have the same broad target audience as a general plugin (like Yoast).
- Review the Pricing Structure- You’ll start to notice a lot of these plugin developers operate with a freemium model. So certain features of a plugin will be free and then more advanced are a one-time or subscription based fee. Make sure you are either comfortable with the cost associated or the free features will meet your goals.
Just like a new car, your high-performing website will need regular tune-ups and attention to keep running smoothly. Each of the plugins and software that is powering your website has a team of developers and creators who are working to constantly improve their product. This results in new releases of versions or updates.
You’ll need to block out about 1-2 hours each month. I use the second Wednesday and it typically doesn’t take the entire time block. You want to make sure you have a good amount of time dedicated to maintenance in case something does arise and you need to dedicate time to troubleshooting.
I use ManageWP, which is a low-cost software, to assist with the updates and I’ll walk you through the detailed “how-to” in the next section.
To get your website up and running efficiently, I have set up accounts specific to your website. This lesson goes through an overview of each of these accounts.
Walkthrough Video
PDF Checklist Download
Use this link to access the PDF document with the tune-up steps and maintenance error troubleshooting tips.
Updating Page Content Using Elementor Builder
Elementor is the page builder we have used to bring your website to life. This video will walk you through how to swap out photos, edit text and make some minor style changes on your website pages.
Best Practices for Photos – Image Optimization
Image Optimization
- Cropping
- Scaling
- Compressing
Why do we need to do this?
- Reduce file size for faster uploading
- Save space on your website
Steps for Optimization
- Crop Image to shape you want to use
- Scale dimensions to appropriate for the space it will take up on the website (general rule of thumb 1920 for full width)
- Save the image
- JPEG for most photos, PNG for text heavy or something that needs a clear background
- Compress to reduce file size – aim for below 250k, 100-200kb is the typical sweet spot
- NAME the file- take the extra step to change the file name into something that identifies it if it goes rouge on the internet ie. OliveFoxDesign-DeskFlatlayClipboard
- Upload your Image
- Directly upload to the media files on your site or within a post
- Make sure to edit all of the information (title, description, alt text, and Pinterest Caption if applicable)
- Preview the post/page to see how it looks!
*Affiliate Link
- Better for SEO
Programs to use
- Photoshop (2:30 in video)
- Canva Pro*– this is work around (8:10 in video)
- Any other photo editing program- google crop/scale images + program name for directions
- Bulk / Batch free program : https://www.befunky.com/create/
Creating + Optimizing Blog Posts
Using the WordPress Gutenburg Builder to create blog posts.
Categories vs Tags
Categories – more static and general grouping of topics. These are going to span the long haul of your website content strategy.
Tags– specific topics that you can use to relate multiple posts to one another. Make sure that you are using the tag (if relevant!) multiple times throughout your posts, if not evaluate eliminating the tag.