WordPress On-Demand Training

Intro to WordPress

[16:12 minutes] Introduction to WordPress

See how to log into WordPress admin
See how to navigate within WordPress
Introduction to the toolbar and editing controls
Introduction to Block Editor

[13:59 minutes] Manage Events

Navigate to Events
Find a specific event
Introduction to the Events screen
Event Settings / Status / Fields
Create an Event
Quick Edit: Status, Categories
Bulk Edit: Status, Categories
Screen Options

[12:08 minutes] Manage News

Navigate to News
Find a specific News item
Introduction to the News screen
News Settings / Status / Fields
Create a News item
Quick Edit: Status, Categories
Bulk Edit: Status, Categories
Screen Options

[8:29 minutes] Manage Files and Images

Best Practices with naming files
Prepare the image: size, compress
Media. Know your site’s preferred Folder structure
Upload files
Add alternative text to images *Important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)!

Create New Pages and Change the Navigation

[17:01] Manage Pages, create a page, change the menu

Navigate to Pages
Find a Specific page
Title, Body
SEO settings. Yoast.
Page Settings
Create a page
Copy all blocks (from one page to another page)

Update the Menu (Use the link above, start around 14 minute mark)

Use Appearance: Menus to edit the menu
Select which menu to edit
Add pages to the menu (Pages must be published and not private to be listed as options)
Update the order of pages

Using Block Editor

[9:54]The Basics

Block tools
Block toolbar, view options, settings
Add / Move / Delete Blocks
Add Paragraphs
Add Section Header, such as Heading 2
Add bullets or numbered list

[9:10] Insert and Style Images using Blocks

Add Image
Add Media & Text
Add a Gallery
In a Paragraph, add Inline image and Use HTML to add a class for img-left or img-right

[9:41] Links and Buttons

Create a link to a page on the same website
Create a link to an external page
Add Button block
Set an Image as a link
Update the URL for social media icons, and set to open in a new tab

[8:58] Advanced layouts

Columns
Spacer
Separator
Pullquote

Advanced Page Builder Tools

[7:24]Add lists of Post Type items to a page

Add block for: /list of
Edit the settings:
- How many to show
- Events: future events
- Filter by any category
Tips: add a header above your list. Add a ‘view all’ button after short lists.

[6:42]Create a Pattern of Blocks (to reuse on other pages)

Patterns make it easy to reuse content on other pages
Patterns can be ‘synced’ or not. Synced means the content will sync across all the pages
Create a synced pattern, insert a synced pattern block
create a non-synced pattern, insert a non-synced pattern and make edits
To edit synced Patterns, go to Appearance > Editor > Patterns.

[13:13] Use Gravity Forms

Create the form
- Add the fields desire. Use Settings to adjust the required note.
- Form settings to add Honeypot
- Confirmation options
- Important: Adjust notification email address. Edit 1 email for user notification and edit 2 emails for the Admin notifications. change the email address from admin_email to a generic email box so you receive the notifications.
Add the ‘Form’ block to the page. Select the form to use. Adjust the settings.
To see responses, go back to Forms and click Entries for your form.
Use Export to get a list of responses in a csv file

[5:55]Create Anchor Links (AKA Jump-to links)

Create the ID tag
Add the link to the ID

Advanced Settings for Pages and for Content Items

[3:02]Revisions

See Revisions
Compare two versions
Revert to any older version

[2:29]Publish on a specific date

Set a Content Item to publish in the future
Edit a Content item to publish in the past

Search Indexing and Search Tools

[7:36]Setting what to index and adjust search page settings

Control which post types are being indexed
Set the number of items per page
Change which Category filter options are on the search results

Administration Tools

[4:59] Manage Categories,aka Taxonomy or Classification

Add and edit Categories

[3:40] Create / edit back-end users

Go to Users
Fill in user name, name, email, and password.
Set the role for that staff member (Typically Administrator or Editor)

Edit vs Other Options

Edit vs Quick Edit vs Rewrite & Republish

Use Quick Edit to adjust title, URL, publish date, private, or status.
Use Edit to work on content changes, categories, or other fields.
Use ‘Rewrite & Republish’ to make major revisions to the page. The URL remains the same.

Duplicate vs Clone vs New Draft

Duplicate, Clone, and New Draft are practically the same. All options copy that item and create a new item with status ‘draft‘. All will result in a new/separate URL.

Duplicate and Clone will keep you on the list page
New Draft will take you immediately into the new draft in the WordPress editor.

Prod URLs, Relative URLs, and Absolute URLs

Very Important: Use Relative URLs for links to content on your website.

A Relative URL begins with the forward slash after your domain.
An Absolute URL includes the https://domain.org

Example:

For a link going to a page:
https://www.resultsdirect.com/success-story/auto-care-website-success-story

use: /success-story/auto-care-website-success-story

This is especially important while your website is still in pre-production and the Absolute URL includes ‘prod’, something like https://prod-resultsdirect.com

What happens if I use ‘Prod’ in my URLs?

It is possible that those links will be broken.

As part of the Launch Process, Results Direct uses ‘search and replace’ to find instances of Absolute URLs and replaces the link code with Relative URLs. BUT the search and replace cannot search in certain areas: URL fields in your content items, style sheets, and code in page templates. It is very important for your links to be relative.

Additional Tips for Files and Images

File Name Best Practices

File names should:

be short and descriptive, no more than 4 words
use 1-2 keywords
not include version numbers or version dates (replace files instead of keeping all versions)
not use special characters
separate words with hyphens, not spaces or underscores

Reference: Article on good file names for SEO

Folder Structure Best Practices

Limit the depth of your folders and subfolders.

A deep structure has negative effects:

The more clicks it takes to get from the home page to the target page, the less important it is deemed by the search engines
Users avoid clicking long URLs on a search results page
Long URLs are more prone to typos

Strive for two levels deep in a folder structure. Allow good file names and search to aid you in finding specific files.

Reference: Article on File Structure for better SEO

Compressing images

Large images increase page load times, which in turn decreases your SEO score.

Here are some tips to reduce the file size:

Use JPG format when possible. Use PNG if it is necessary for transparency or high quality.
In Photoshop, change the number of colors being used. Most logos can be 32 colors. (Bump that up to 64 or 128 if necessary).
In Photoshop, save JPEG as medium quality / 60K. Or use Save for Web (Legacy) – PNG

Advanced designers can use these 2 tools to reduce png file sizes:

First: ImageAlpha – compress the color palette.
Then: ImageOptim – crunches further and removes metadata.