Emily Journey | WordPress Training

by Emily Journey on April 7, 2021

In-Person WordPress Training Options

Advanced WordPress Training — In Person WordPress Training

In-person WordPress training equips you with the knowledge and skills required to manage your WordPress website with confidence. We’re a team of WordPress experts ready to help you master this sometimes complicated platform. Watch the video below for details or read on to learn more about our customized WordPress training classes for business owners, IT staff, administrative staff, and marketing teams.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Contact Us Training FAQs »

Have you ever felt frustrated by the unresponsiveness of a website developer or agency? I know we sure have. If you don’t have control of your website, it could take days (or even weeks) to implement small changes.

In the meantime . . .

your company time, money, and reputation circle the drain while you wait for important website updates. You don’t have to let that happen anymore.

INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM TRAINING?

Online One-on-One Training Training for your Team

In person WordPress Training

Virtual WordPress Trainer — WordPress Trainer, Rachel Pfanz

Do you need a customized, one-on-one training experience? Then you’re probably looking for our individual WordPress training. Meet virtually or in-person with one of our WordPress experts to walk through everything you need to know about managing and building your particular WordPress website.

This training is perfect for:

Independent business owners such as retail shop owners, real estate agents, coaches, speakers, and other service professionals
The staff person who got tasked with managing the website–lucky you!
IT professionals, graphic designers, and marketing professionals who want to expand their skill set

In person WordPress consulting for corporate teams

WordPress Consultant — WordPress Instructor, Emily Journey

Do you need two or more of your staff available to manage and update your company website? If so, on-site corporate WordPress consulting with Emily Journey will give your team the skills they need to be successful with this responsibility. Emily will meet with your staff as a group to teach them basic to advanced WordPress–customized for their specific needs and goals.

This training is perfect for:

In-house marketing teams
Your IT department
A group of key staff members

Take back control of your company website.

Do your website change requests seem to have fallen into a black hole? Unfortunately, you’re not the only one. Most employees do not have the knowledge required to make informed decisions about digital assets. Sometimes they end up outsourcing these important decisions to a third party.

Lack of in-house knowledge creates a costly dependency upon website developers.

Remove the middle man with WordPress Training. Your team will be equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to run, maintain, and update the company’s website–all without having to deal with poor communication from third parties.

Contact Us Course Details Training FAQs »

What to expect from one-on-one WordPress training

If you’re looking for a lengthy PowerPoint presentation and generic handouts, our way of teaching probably isn’t the best approach for you. When you book WordPress training with us, be prepared for an interactive, hands-on experience.

Get access to resources for a stronger foundation and preparation.
Two intensive, one-on-one sessions lasting 4-hours each.
Receive the video recordings of your training sessions for review at your convenience (available only with virtual training.)
Receive an additional 3 months of access to your instructor for follow-up questions and consultation.

Get started with one-on-one WordPress training

Step 1: Let’s talk about your goals

First things first. We’ll discuss your website goals and challenges. Understanding what you want to accomplish helps us customize your individual WordPress training for your unique needs. Already know WordPress basics? Great! Your training experience will be more advanced. This first conversation is also a great time to ask any additional questions you have about the process.

Step 2: Set a Date

We’ll get things off the ground by securing a spot on our calendar. Once we have the training date(s) decided, we will provide a payment link via email. You will also get some valuable resources based on your unique goals to tide you over until the big day.

Step 3: Learn by Doing

We are big proponents of kinetic learning – aka, learning by doing! And since you’re seeking some personalized training, it’s pretty safe to assume you’d like that kind of atmosphere too. We’ll meet in-person or via GoToMeeting as you are guided through the steps of managing WordPress.

Stop struggling with WordPress and learn faster.
Contact us today to get started!

On-site Staff WordPress Training

Give your team the skills they need to be successful

Have your employees ever gotten frustrated or behind schedule due to an unresponsive website developer or agency? You’re not the only one with this concern. Does your sales department consider your company website a valuable asset in closing sales? Too many teams lack internal command of the company website, which affects your bottom line. This lack of control means your staff may have to wait days (or even weeks) to implement changes or new campaigns.

With our staff WordPress training, Emily Journey can help you remove the middle man and give your team control over updates. Each of your team members will be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to run, maintain, and update your company website–all without having to deal with poor communication from third parties.

Get started with WordPress training for your staff

Step 1: Let’s talk about your goals

Before we begin, we’ll discuss your goals and website challenges. Understanding what you want to accomplish helps us customize your company’s WordPress training to your unique needs. This is also a great time to ask any additional questions you have about the process.

Step 2: Schedule the training

We’ll find the perfect times for your staff to get together for training. Once that’s settled, we will provide a secure payment link via email. After payment, expect to receive some valuable resources based on your company’s unique goals to prepare you for the training.

Step 3: Put it into action

During staff WordPress training, we walk through your company website. First, we’ll identify the items that are common to every WordPress website. Then, we’ll get into the unique challenges and structure of your specific website. We will determine what is really possible with your website. And, we will look at workarounds for dealing with difficult areas in your website. Come prepared to get involved, take notes and absorb a lot! Our interactive lessons will equip your team with exactly what they need to make informed decisions and work with confidence.

What to expect during WordPress training

If you want your team to sit through a lengthy PowerPoint presentation and generic handouts, this probably isn’t what you want. Emily provides your staff with an interactive, hands-on experience every step of the way.

Get access to resources for a stronger foundation and preparation.
Your team gets two customized training sessions (4 hours per session).
Receive an additional 3 months of on-going email and phone support after the class.

by Emily Journey on March 15, 2021

WordPress Training in Washington, DC

Manage your website with confidence. Learn WordPress.

WordPress training equips you with the knowledge and skills required to manage your WordPress website with confidence. We’re a team of four WordPress experts ready to help you master this sometimes complicated platform. Watch the video above for details or read on to learn more about our customized WordPress training classes for Washington, DC business owners, nonprofit organizations, administrative staff, and marketing teams.
Office: (844) 972-6224 Contact Us Training FAQs »
Have you ever felt frustrated by the unresponsiveness of a website developer or agency? I know we sure have. If you don’t have control of your website, it could take days (or even weeks) to implement small changes.

In the meantime . . .

your company time, money, and reputation circle the drain while you wait for important website updates. You don’t have to let that happen anymore.

INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM TRAINING?

One-on-One Training Training for our Team

One-on-one WordPress Training Washington, DC

Rachel Pfanz WordPress coach — Rachel Pfanz, WordPress Trainer

Do you need a customized, one-on-one training experience? Then you’re probably looking for our one-on-one WordPress training. Meet virtually or in person with one of our WordPress experts to walk through everything you need to know about managing and building your particular WordPress website.

This training is perfect for:

Independent business owners such as retail shop owners, real estate agents, coaches, speakers, and other service professionals
The staff person who got tasked with managing the website–lucky you!
IT professionals, graphic designers, and marketing professionals who want to expand their skill set

Washington, DC WordPress Training Courses

1-on-1 WordPress Training	More Info
Advanced WordPress Training	More Info
Private WordPress Tutoring	More Info
Private Corporate WordPress Training	More Info

Washington, DC Office

5028 Wisconsin Ave NW #100,
Washington, DC 20016

Washington, DC Training Dates

1-on-1 WordPress Training	April 1-2, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
1-on-1 WordPress Training	April 12-13, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
1-on-1 WordPress Training	April 22-23, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
1-on-1 WordPress Training	April 26-27, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Advanced WordPress Training	April 1-2, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Advanced WordPress Training	April 12-13, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Advanced WordPress Training	April 22-23, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Advanced WordPress Training	April 26-27, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Private WordPress Tutoring	March 22-23, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Private WordPress Tutoring	April 8-9, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Private WordPress Tutoring	April 19-20, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Private Corporate WordPress Training	April 1-2, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Private Corporate WordPress Training	April 12-13, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Private Corporate WordPress Training	April 22-23, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497
Private Corporate WordPress Training	April 26-27, 2021 8:00 AM-12:00 PM	Live Instructor	$1497

On-site WordPress consulting in Washington, DC

Do you need two or more of your staff available to manage and update your company website? If so, on-site WordPress training in DC will give your team the skills they need to be successful with this responsibility. Emily will meet with your staff as a group to teach them basic to advanced WordPress–customized for their specific needs and goals.

This training is perfect for:

In-house marketing teams
Your IT department
A group of key staff members

Take back control of your company website.

Lack of in-house knowledge creates a costly dependency upon website developers.

Remove the middle man with WordPress Training. Your team will be equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to run, maintain, and update the company’s website–all without having to deal with poor communication from third parties.

What to expect from WordPress training

If you’re looking for a lengthy PowerPoint presentation and generic handouts, this probably isn’t the best option for you. When you book WordPress training, be prepared for an interactive, hands-on experience.

Get access to resources for a stronger foundation and preparation.
Two intensive, one-on-one sessions lasting 4-hours each.
Receive the video recordings of your training sessions for review at your convenience (available only with virtual training.)
Receive an additional 3 months of access to your instructor for follow-up questions and consultation.

Get started with one-on-one WordPress training

Step 1: Let’s talk about your goals

Step 2: Set a Date

Step 3: Learn by Doing

On-site Staff WordPress Training in Washington, DC

Give your team the skills they need to be successful

Get started with WordPress training for your staff

Step 1: Let’s talk about your goals

Step 2: Schedule the training

We’ll find the perfect times for your staff to get together for training. Once that’s settled, we will arrange for payment. After payment, expect to receive some valuable resources based on your company’s unique goals to prepare you for the training.

Step 3: Put it into action

During your small group WordPress training, we walk through your company website. First, we’ll identify the items that are common to every WordPress website. Then, we’ll get into the unique challenges and structure of your specific website. We will determine what is really possible with your website. And, we will look at workarounds for dealing with difficult areas in your website. Come prepared to get involved, take notes and absorb a lot! Our interactive lessons will equip your team with exactly what they need to make informed decisions and work with confidence.

What to expect during WordPress training in DC

Get access to resources for a stronger foundation and preparation.
Your team gets two customized training sessions (4 hours per session).
Receive an additional 3 months of on-going email and phone support after the class.

by Emily Journey on March 7, 2021

How quality writing can sell your business

Every business owner utilizes written words to communicate with their existing clients or to generate new business. Whether it is a simple email, a Facebook or Twitter update, a blog post, or a newsletter, all business owners use writing to communicate with their customers and ultimately sell their products and services.

It’s not enough to simply have a website, write a blog or have a social media presence with mediocre content. As a business owner, you must ensure that everything written about your business is high quality. It should be simple, concise, grammatically correct, and the right length and voice for the format for which it is being used.

If you are writing well, you are communicating well, which helps promote your business.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Meet Our Team

Quality writing supports the “Inbound Marketing” efforts for your business.

With the rise of social media, blogging, and virtual networking, customers read your information and can easily click to your website to learn more. When you are writing for your customers’ interests, they are drawn toward your business naturally via these outlets – a term coined as Inbound Marketing. Quality writing makes a positive impression on your customers and entices them to learn more about you.

While many people can write, few can do it well. As a marketer, writing well means being able to convey an idea, message, or even a brand. That may mean breaking down the features and benefits of a product into terms your audience can understand or highlighting crucial aspects of a product and influencing people to learn more or make a purchase.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Learn More

Skillful writing gives your business credibility

Writing about topics that are related to your industry is a great way to be seen as an expert in your field. By offering engaging blog posts, written tips, or helpful suggestions, you can earn credibility with your customers and establish yourself as the successful professional they will look to when it is time to buy.

People with advanced writing skills are perceived as more reliable and trustworthy. It is easy to prove. Imagine that you receive an email where you notice odd abbreviations and misspelled words. What will be the first impression of the sender?

Two options are possible. And none is satisfactory for the sender. Either the person is not competent and neglects proofreading or is simply unintelligent. Aim to be perceived as credible through the content on your website.

Quality writing effectively markets your goods or services to help your business grow

Good writing not only describes your business—it clearly explains how what you have to offer benefits your customer. Your customers don’t want to be told how great your product is. They want to know how your product is going help them solve a problem they have or make their lives easier. A product description is important, but the emphasis always needs to be on the benefit.

Content marketing, social media messaging, and search engine optimization are all functions of digital marketing that depend heavily on quality writing. You can create as many blog posts or tweets as you want, but, if people can’t relate to your message, they aren’t going to engage with your brand. If no one is engaging with your brand, your brand is not going to grow.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Meet Our Team

Quality writing helps build business relationships

Through written conversations on social media, comments on your blog, or emails with your customers, you can answer questions or further explain what your business has to offer. Developing these conversations adds an element of customer service that many people are looking for when making a purchasing decision.

Our customers know how to get the information they need. They research businesses online, they read blogs and comment on them, and they ask questions through social media. And all of these types of communications are based on writing. If you are keeping up with your business blog and writing well in all of your communications, you will sell your product, develop trust with your customers, and ensure future business sales.

Growing your business: Quality writing and SEO

Search Engine Optimization incorporates a wide range of strategies to enhance your website rankings to generate more traffic to your website which results in more conversions and business growth. There are many benefits to optimizing your site for search engines, including:

A site that ranks highly has greater visibility giving it a greater chance to generate organic search engine traffic.
A highly-ranked site appears more credible.
SEO tends to focus on producing quality content. A site containing more useful and relevant information will rank higher and is more appealing to its visitors.
WordPress is optimized for SEO. By incorporating a deliberate SEO strategy, you will be well on your way to getting the results you want.

Our SEO training will equip you with the knowledge and skills required to manage your WordPress website with confidence. We’re a team of SEO experts ready to help you generate an increase in traffic to your WordPress website through our SEO services. Learn about about our customized SEO training classes for business owners, IT staff, administrative staff, and marketing teams and other custom SEO services.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Get Started with SEO Training

A 450% return in two months!

"I kept track of the conversions resulting from my 30 City SEO campaign and thought you would be interested in the results to date.
In the past 10 weeks, there have been 48 orders from states and cities we have not served in the past,
Orders have come from 14 of the 30 cities I targeted with SEO.
That is a 450% return on our investment in your SEO Training.
Fingers crossed for an even more successful Christmas!"

Blanche Fraser, Executive Director, Sales and Marketing
Gluuteny Bakery

SEO Course

2019-12-05T12:47:54-05:00

Blanche Fraser, Executive Director, Sales and Marketing
Gluuteny Bakery

"I kept track of the conversions resulting from my 30 City SEO campaign and thought you would be interested in the results to date. In the past 10 weeks, there have been 48 orders from states and cities we have not served in the past, Orders have come from 14 of the 30 cities I targeted with SEO. That is a 450% return on our investment in your SEO Training. Fingers crossed for an even more successful Christmas!"

https://emilyjourney.com/testimonials/450-percent-return/

Eye opening and informative!

"Thank you again for coming and working with our team the past few days. It was so eye opening and informative! You get 5 Stars!!!!
We have results! We were impatient, lol, and looked for results on our phones last night and we’re ranked 3rd in organic!!!!!”

Kasey Eakins, Higginbotham Family Dental

SEO Course

2019-06-19T17:56:32-04:00

Kasey Eakins, Higginbotham Family Dental

"Thank you again for coming and working with our team the past few days. It was so eye opening and informative! You get 5 Stars!!!! We have results! We were impatient, lol, and looked for results on our phones last night and we’re ranked 3rd in organic!!!!!”

https://emilyjourney.com/testimonials/eye-opening-and-informative/

Get customers to call you

“What if you have a great product but nobody can find your website? Emily’s your remedy.
If you want your website to reach the top of Google searches, she’s your person.
If you want to learn how to navigate and manage your own WordPress site, she’s your person.
If you want follow-ups, check-ins and after-training support, she’s your person.
You’re going to be way better off when you understand what the principals are so that you can enhance your own reputation and get the customers that you are now cold calling...to call you.”

Jeffrey Gitomer, King of Sales
Buy Gitomer

SEO Course

2019-06-23T17:57:48-04:00

Jeffrey Gitomer, King of Sales
Buy Gitomer

“What if you have a great product but nobody can find your website? Emily’s your remedy. If you want your website to reach the top of Google searches, she’s your person. If you want to learn how to navigate and manage your own WordPress site, she’s your person. If you want follow-ups, check-ins and after-training support, she’s your person. You’re going to be way better off when you understand what the principals are so that you can enhance your own reputation and get the customers that you are now cold calling...to call you.”

https://emilyjourney.com/testimonials/get-customers-to-call-you/

Get more people finding you

“A lot of you tell us you want more people calling you and finding you. And, this is a way to get that. It’s pretty cool!”

Jennifer Gluckow, Sales in a New York Minute

SEO Course

2019-06-23T17:55:19-04:00

Jennifer Gluckow, Sales in a New York Minute

“A lot of you tell us you want more people calling you and finding you. And, this is a way to get that. It’s pretty cool!”

https://emilyjourney.com/testimonials/get-more-people-finding-you/

Offered powerful information

“I attended Emily’s WordPress training sessions and her SEO training presentation. All of them were extremely helpful and offered powerful information to help us build customized websites and achieve high search engine rankings. With her friendly personality and organized style, Emily taught us how to best use WordPress and SEO to meet our website objectives. She also offered plugin and theme recommendations, and other resources to help us accomplish our business goals. She addressed each question with a thoughtful, helpful response, and tailored each presentation to the specific needs of the group. Emily is a skilled, experienced presenter that has a unique gift for taking complicated information and explaining it in a way that everyone can understand. Even an experienced WordPress user would gain insight and tips from her presentations. I highly recommend Emily for any type of presentation, training or public speaking event.”

Laurie Zinn, Owner, Line-By-Line

SEO Course

2019-06-23T17:05:23-04:00

Laurie Zinn, Owner, Line-By-Line

https://emilyjourney.com/testimonials/offered-powerful-information/

There we were, on page 1 of Google

"We connected and within a week we had a 2 hour virtual consultation scheduled. We implemented her training on our site and within 2 days of posting our SEO strategy pages, there we were, on page 1 of Google in #1 position. Thanks Emily!"

Jeremy Cyrier, Mansard Commercial Real Estate

SEO Course

2019-06-23T16:48:49-04:00

Jeremy Cyrier, Mansard Commercial Real Estate

https://emilyjourney.com/testimonials/there-we-were-on-page-1-of-google/

I just booked my first seminar!

“Emily, I wanted to let you know that I just booked my first seminar using the SEO technique that you shared with me during our time together. Thank you so much for that wonderful tip”

Michelle Joyce, Michelle Joyce Speakers

SEO Course

2019-06-23T16:47:32-04:00

Michelle Joyce, Michelle Joyce Speakers

“Emily, I wanted to let you know that I just booked my first seminar using the SEO technique that you shared with me during our time together. Thank you so much for that wonderful tip”

https://emilyjourney.com/testimonials/i-just-booked-my-first-seminar/

Some great news

"Hi Emily, Some great news.
Yesterday, I received my first inquiry directly from one of my blog
posts. My ‘NLP Life Coach in Houston’ post is on page 1 and got a response 4 days after I posted it!”

Alexander Van Buren, Business Coach and NLP Practitioner

SEO Course

2019-06-23T17:01:17-04:00

Alexander Van Buren, Business Coach and NLP Practitioner

"Hi Emily, Some great news. Yesterday, I received my first inquiry directly from one of my blog posts. My ‘NLP Life Coach in Houston’ post is on page 1 and got a response 4 days after I posted it!”

https://emilyjourney.com/testimonials/some-great-news/

SEO Course

by Emily Journey on March 1, 2021

Steps for planning your WordPress website

You’ve decided on WordPress. That’s a great start! Here is a step-by-step guide for planning your WordPress website before you start building.
Office: (844) 972-6224 Meet our team

Select the best hosting company for your WordPress website

As an instructor, I am frequently asked about website hosting. There are two things that differentiate great hosting companies from the not so great.

High quality tech support
WordPress friendliness

A good hosting company is going to have tech support available 24 hours/day and be able to communicate clearly with you. They will also advertise themselves as WordPress friendly. Although . . . and this is important . . . there is no reason to pay extra for a special type of hosting plan that is specific to WordPress. Your standard shared hosting plan will do the job nicely. Remember, you can always upgrade your plan if you wish.

As a website developer, I have plenty of experience attempting to work with various hosting companies. Launching a new website or transferring a website requires a good website hosting interface. Let me tell you, there are some real nightmares out there!
I use and recommend WP Engine and Host Gator for hosting services.

Take note: throughout this article, I list products that I recommend. In the spirit of full disclosure, some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means I may get a small commission if you decide to purchase anything from these companies. I only recommend products and systems I use myself. So, you are in good hands.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Meet our team

Choosing the right theme for your WordPress website

When I was getting started with WordPress, I wish I would have had someone to tell me, “Use this theme!”
Instead, it took me a long time to stumble upon some high quality theme providers. I didn’t even know how I was supposed to tell the difference between the good stuff and the bad stuff. Here are some rules to follow when selecting your WordPress theme:

Responsive

It has to be responsive. A responsive website looks good on phones, tablets and desktops. Do not even look twice at a theme that does not have the label, “responsive”.

Avoid “Free” Themes

When you purchase a premium theme, you are paying for the support behind it. Without a doubt, you will have questions about how to use your website theme. A quality theme comes with excellent documentation and a support forum where you can get answers quickly. If you think you will not need to utilize a support forum while you are working with your theme, then you are a more skilled developer than I am!

Flexibility

Because I work with a variety of clients with unlimited variations in creative vision, I need flexibility in a WordPress theme. Flexibility means I can use it to design a website exactly the way my client wants. One of my favorite themes is currently offered by Theme Fusion and it is called Avada. Take a look and you’ll see why I love it.
Some of the additional theme providers I use and value are Themify.me, Elegant Themes, and Studio Press.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Learn More

Utilizing calls to action on your WordPress website

What do you want your prospect to do once they’ve landed on your website?

Call?
Buy?
Opt-in to an email list?
Fill out a form?

Make sure your website design helps you achieve your ultimate goal.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Meet our team

Making decisions about your WordPress website’s main navigation

Does it make sense for a first-time visitor? Do you really need to jam your entire website into your main navigation? Remember: The average visitor makes less than 2 page visits before abandoning your website. Consider offering fewer choices in your main navigation.

WordPress website styling: Finalize your color palette and fonts

Go grab some great ideas from Adobe for color inspiration and head on over to Google Fonts while you’re at it.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Meet our team

Review the 7 basic components of WordPress for your website

The pieces and parts of a WordPress site can be a bit confusing. That’s how I felt when I started learning WordPress. Part of me thought I’d never get it down. But, here I am today, teaching people like you how to get the most out of their investment!

Even if you aren’t the one building the website, you are going to have plenty of meetings and conversations about the website. Directions are easier to understand when everyone is speaking the same “language”. Bone up on a little bit of terminology to prevent confusion.

1. Header

The WordPress header is located at the top of your website. It’ll most likely contain your logo and is one of the first things visitors see when they look at your page.
You can see on my website, I use my header as a space for both my logo, social media icons and main navigation (which is a section we’ll get to in a minute).

Headers are customizable in a few ways:

Background Color
Width and Height
Header Image (i.e. logo)
Link from Header Image to Home Page

Depending on your theme, you may be able to edit each of these things from within your Theme or Appearance options. Otherwise, you’ll need to make alterations directly in the stylesheet.

2. Main Navigation

Visitors can meander through your site in several ways, assuming you have a good internal linking structure. But the most direct path is the main navigation.
It’s here that you will highlight the most important pages on your website. At the top level, it typically includes Home, About, Services and Contact pages. But you can also use sub-navigation. Here’s what that looks like on my site.

The main navigation should offer a logical path for visitors to walk through your site. Lead them with important pages at the top level with supporting pages as sub-navigation.

3. Slider

Sliders are great when you have multiple announcements or call-to-actions that visitors need to see. Visitors can manually scroll through the slides, or your can set them to rotate automatically.

It’s up to you!

You’ll notice that I’m not using a slider, per se. But this area on my site with the image is where a slider would typically go. Again, it’s your call on how to use this. For me, I like how it displays my unique selling proposition every time someone comes to the site.

4. Footer

I like to think about footer areas as our own feet – they’re incredibly useful but highly under-appreciated. When was the last time you truly appreciated all the things your feet help you to do? Probably never.

And it’s the same way with our footer.

Much like the header, a good footer will also include important information. But this info isn’t necessarily the lifeblood of your website navigation.

As you can see, I’ve got a pretty basic footer, but it includes some information you won’t find directly available in the heading (i.e. Terms & Conditions, Guest Posts and my phone number).

5. Widget Areas

Depending on your theme, widgets can appear just about anywhere on your website. However, the most common area is on your website sidebar.

On my website, I’m using widgets to promote my new eBook and provide social proof through testimonials. Here’s a quick screengrab of my eBook promo:

This is a space where you can get very creative. Just think to yourself, “What could add value or entice readers if they saw it on multiple pages?”

For me, that was my eBooks and testimonials. It could be something entirely different for you!

6. Posts

Blogging is a powerful marketing tool when executed well. And when you create a new blog, you’ll add it as a new post. It’s really as simple as that.

With blogs, posts are the main focus of content. Sure, it’ll be surrounded by the header, footer and widget areas. But what people will really be paying attention to is the posts that you’re publishing on a regular basis.

7. Pages

Pages are a bit different than posts and can feel confusing for some. The main difference lies in their functionality. Essentially, a post goes into your blog feed, whereas a page is a standalone portion of your website.

What you’re reading now is a post.

However, if you went over to Our Team page you’d be looking at a page.

As a business owner, you’ll use pages to setup the structure of your website. Home, About, Services and Contact should all be pages. However, once you start marketing and want to update your blog, then you’ll be creating posts.

Now that you know the 7 basic component of your website, it’s time to dig a bit deeper. Find my eBook promo in the widget area and download Unlocking WordPress. I’m pretty proud of this guide and believe it will be of immense value to you and your business.

Once you have these fundamentals figured out, you can focus on creating great content. Dive right in!

Office: (844) 972-6224 Learn More

Getting the most out of your WordPress website

Want to make sure your WordPress website is planned well so that you are in the best position to scale your business? Learn WordPress to get the biggest bang from your website buck. When you book WordPress training with us either in-person or virtually, be prepared for an interactive, hands-on experience.

Get access to resources for a stronger foundation and preparation.
Two intensive, one-on-one sessions lasting 4-hours each.
Receive the video recordings of your virtual training sessions for review at your convenience (available only with virtual training.)
Receive an additional 90 days of access to your instructor for follow-up questions and consultation.

Learn about our unique method of WordPress Training:

One-on-One WordPress Training Team WordPress Training

by Emily Journey on February 24, 2021

6 tips for speeding up your WordPress website load time

If you think users will be willing to wait while your website loads, prepare for a nasty surprise. Long page load time is not only annoying—it can have a lasting impact on how users perceive your brand and its products or services.

Unless you want to forfeit the hard-earned attention of your website visitors, you simply must make sure that your WordPress website performs great and loads in no time.

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Speeding up your WordPress website load time: Is it worth it?

If you never suspected that the load time of your website might have anything to do with its conversion rate, it’s high time you did. Countless studies have shown how the two are connected – for instance a 1-second improvement in page loading time can lead to a 7% increase in a website’s conversion rate.

Impressive, isn’t it?

Even if this figure seems mind-blowing, try this: according to several research studies, 83% of users actually expect a website to load in 3 seconds or less. It’s been shown that a longer load time affects their perception of the brand and inspires them to share their negative experience with friends and family. If your e-commerce website takes some time to load, there’s a 77% chance that your customers won’t be returning to your store precisely because of this reason.

That’s why you should think about speeding up your website. You’ve already done the hard work of bringing people to your website through your unique products and services and engaging blog posts. Don’t let a slow-loading page push them away.

Here are some top industry tips to reduce the load time of your WordPress site.

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Steps to speeding up your WordPress website load time

1. Measure it

There are lots of tools out there to help you measure your page load. To analyze the performance of your website and receive some great tips on how to optimize it, test your website speed at GTmetrix.

2. Use a light design theme

Prepare for the fact that some design themes might include more features than you actually need and contain JavaScript, bloated code or large images – and all of these will take additional time to load.

My advice? Choose design themes that are light, clear and responsive, and invest in a premium design. Although there are many free design themes available, premium designs are worth the cost: they usually have clean code, give you some flexibility and are really fast to load.

For lightweight themes that are quick to load, I recommend StudioPress (although it is not easily customizable.)

3. Optimize your images

This is one of the most important things you can do to reduce the load time of your website. Images should be optimized – make sure they’re as small as they can be. Crop them, edit them, and get rid of image comments. Go for JPG or PNG formats – avoid BMP or TIFF files. You can use GIFs, but just small ones.

Always include the src attribute in the code of your website – with no source on hand, the browser will have to make a request and consequently take more time to load your visuals.

4. Limit the number of HTTP requests

If web developers learned anything from the dynamics of website load time, it’s this: the largest part of the load time is spent on loading its elements, such as scripts, Flash, images or style sheets. For each and every one of these elements, browsers have to make an HTTP request – as you can imagine, the more elements your website includes, the more requests will be made by browsers and, consequently, the more time will be needed to load your page.

How do you deal with it? By simply limiting the number of elements of your website by using CSS, combining multiple elements, redoing scripts, locating all scripts on the bottom of the page and streamlining the general number of page elements. Complicated, but definitely worth the trouble.

5. Say goodbye to some of your plugins

One thing is certain: if your website relies on too many plugins, it will take a long time to load. But that’s not all. Plugins can also crash or cause security problems. To avoid all this mess, make sure that you’re using only plugins that are absolutely necessary.

After removing your unnecessary plugins, have a good look at those that are left and check how they affect the load time of your website – simply disable them one by one and test the speed of your website. If one of the plugins is still causing noticeable slowing, consider deleting it or finding an alternative that’s quicker to load.

6. Compress, and then compress some more

What about large pages? Compress them!

It’s simple and effective – try Gzip to reduce the bandwidth of your pages and limit their HTTP responses. This tool is supported by almost all web browsers and is great for speeding up your website.

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Getting the most out of your WordPress website

Want to make sure your WordPress website is optimized so that you are in the best position to scale your business? Learn WordPress to get the best bang from your website buck. When you book WordPress training with us either in-person or virtually, be prepared for an interactive, hands-on experience.

Get access to resources for a stronger foundation and preparation.
Two intensive, one-on-one sessions lasting 4-hours each.
Receive the video recordings of your virtual training sessions for review at your convenience (available only with virtual training.)
Receive an additional 90 days of access to your instructor for follow-up questions and consultation.

Learn about our unique method of WordPress Training:

One-on-One WordPress Training WordPress Training for your Team

by Emily Journey on February 22, 2021

Protect your business from unethical web design agencies

Your website is an important asset of your business or organization. Protecting and maintaining that asset requires and investment of time and effort, not to mention a little bit of skill.

Not every business owner can be an expert at website development, design, and maintenance. That is why it is fairly common for businesses to hire a web design agency to assist with designing and managing their website. Unfortunately, there are unethical web agencies who don’t have you or your business’ best interests in mind. Making the right decision in hiring a web agency is critically important to protect your company’s online assets in the event of a complicated situation.

Protect your business from unethical web design agencies

Do website developers withhold knowledge and information for their own financial gain? Why, yes, they do! Read my article about developers discouraging self-sufficiency.

I can’t tell you how many horror stories I’ve heard from business leaders about the nightmares they’ve experienced with a web design agency. From not having administrative access to having their entire website shut down!

Your business is built upon the values of integrity, stewardship, and excellence. So, why shouldn’t your web design agency be the same way?

While I can’t make every web design agency ethical, I can help decision makers make informed decisions. The great news is that there is no need to remain with an unethical or unresponsive web agency that manages your website. All you need is a bit of knowledge and maybe even an advocate and you will be well on your way to becoming self-sufficient with WordPress.

Want to talk about reliable website management services? Contact us for information and pricing.
With our subscription based website management services, you get dedicated time on your website each month.

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An unethical web design agency will want to register your domain name

It’s never a good idea to have a web design agency register your domain name. That’s just not how it is supposed to work.

When you register the domain, it becomes your digital property. Unethical agencies want to register your domain name for you so that it becomes their property. That can quickly turn the dream of growing your business into a nightmare. You are forced to request your own domain name back from that unethical web agency.

The unethical web agency will rarely do the right thing. It is unlikely they will transfer registration into your name and doubtful they will even sell your domain name back to you for what it cost to buy it in the first place. Unfortunately, an unethical web agency will jack up the cost of your domain name so that they can sell it to you to make a hefty profit on something that should have never been within in their control in the first place.

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Administrative access is required from your web design agency

The hosting account is where your files exist. It’s the backend stuff that makes your website look and function beautifully. Without them, you won’t have a website. Unless you’re a designer, you probably won’t use this access much.
However, you still need that level of access to ensure you have complete control over your files. The last thing you want to experience is an unethical web design agency stealing or deleting your website.

Own your content

Speaking of a beautiful website… please make sure you own your content. You own the design, the code, and the content (from the words to the images) of your website. Don’t let an unethical web agency tell you otherwise. If you don’t own the assets, it is time to move on to another web agency.

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Get full access to your WordPress dashboard from your web agency

In addition to hosting access, you also need administrative access to your WordPress dashboard. Don’t settle for anything less!
WordPress offers 5 roles, only one of which gives you full access.

Subscriber
Contributor
Author
Editor
Administrator

Demand that level of access and don’t let an unethical design agency convince you that you don’t require the administrator level of access. Always be certain you have access to the following:

All necessary contact information for the company hosting your website
The URL, username, and password from the vendor
The FTP server name, address, username, and password so that you can access the files on your website
Get a list of all software used in the creation of your website. Also, find out about any licenses or fees required to use that software (for example, some of WordPress’ plugins aren’t free).

Looking for an advocate in this process? Contact us for information and pricing. With our subscription based website management services, you get dedicated time on your website each month.

Office: (844) 972-6224 Learn more