It’s tough to know all of the things that WordPress can do. Tbh, that feels like my job, not yours. Which is why I wanted to explain Custom Post Types to you, because they are worth knowing for 90% of the businesses that use WP. Why? Because they expand your site from managing blog posts + pages to housing a slew of content. While also making that content easier to share. wtf is a Custom Post Type? CPTs, or Custom Post Types, are a way to add specialized content to…
plugins, add-ons + extras
Learn how to enhance WordPress the right way… with plugins + add-ons.
Using WordPress for Your Podcast
In honor of International Podcast Day, let’s talk about that inkling you’ve had to start a podcast. Just me? Cool, cool. WordPress was originally created for blogs + internet diaries. I know this because my love for the platform started when I was looking for a way to publish my teen angst-ridden poetry. (It wasn’t that bad, but there’s a reason I code for a living now.) WP grew into a really useful content management system (CMS) that works really well for podcasts. But how do you use WordPress for…
Check Your Links
A couple weeks ago, I launched a site facelift for a client. After I coded the site, another member of the team imported blog posts + added team member bios. One of those blog posts had a broken link that wasn’t discovered until launch day. It had been broken on their old design for at least 2 years (if not longer) but was caught + resolved on launch day thanks to the free tool I’m going to share with you. For many of us, keeping users engaged is the first…
Add search to your WordPress website
Have you ever stumbled upon a new business or site that seems like it might change your life? When I was training for a marathon last year, I found Jane on Instagram + quickly worked my way through the mountain of blog posts she had available to endurance runners like me. Some of our site traffic has been with us from the start. But more often than not, they are newer + don’t know all of the content you have available. Which is why having a search option + clear…
How to fix a broken WordPress plugin
Keep this post open when you’re running updates because that’s the most common time for WordPress plugins to break. Whether it’s a slow server or tackling too many plugin updates at the same time, sometimes the update process times out (stalls) + files don’t fully load. When that happens, plugins don’t work as expected. That’s when you need to fix your broken WordPress plugin to get your site functional. Step 1, disable the broken plugin First, if you can see the plugin in your Installed Plugins list, you’re simply going…
The hidden cost of WordPress plugins
What so many bloggers + website owners don’t realize is that their plugins might be costing them customers. That information can be more valuable than the up front cost of the WordPress plugins you choose to use. What’s the harm with adding plugins? I’m not even talking about the heated debates that most website owners get into on social groups… What I am talking about is the countless plugins that make your site slower than molasses in January. If you didn’t know, that’s really slow. And when your site is…
Create a unique image for Facebook
When you — or someone that reads your content — share a link to your site on social media, your Featured Image is the default image pulled as the preview. For some, that’s perfect. However, there are times that you’d want a different layout or graphic for social media compared to the image displays directly on your site. And in that case, you can use a free plugin to create a unique image for Facebook. Save your custom Facebook image The hardest part about this entire process is going to…
Easy to remember custom Zoom links — that are branded too
How often have you gone searching for the correct link for a meeting moments before it was scheduled to start? Same… same. And you know if you + I are doing that, our leads + clients are doing that too. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can set up custom Zoom links within WordPress that will be easy for everyone to remember. Plus, they’ll be on-brand. Redirects = your custom Zoom links I’ve gone over setting up redirects within WordPress before. And that process is the same for…
How to install Yoast SEO on your WordPress site
Before you can make the most of this free plugin, you need to install the Yoast SEO plugin + activate it on your WordPress site. If it’s listed in your active plugins, skip to the essential settings which is one paragraph away. If you don’t have it installed, let’s spend 5 minutes fixing that. Pop over to Plugins > Add New in your dashboard. Search Yoast SEO + click the Install Now button. After it finishes installing, you’ll be able to click the Activate button to complete this task. That’s it, pretty much a handful of button clicks. Installed Yoast SEO…