Learn all the basics of using WordPress 3.9 in this extensive video tutorial series. You’ll learn how to install it on various domains, you’ll get an understanding of the WordPress file system and the terminology that comes with that. After a tour of the interface you’ll learn various ways of setting WordPress up for different types of websites.
We cover SEO, both the settings and how it relates to styling your content for readability which leads into using the text editor and inserting images into pages. There are some new features in the media library and editor to take note of here. You’ll also learn all about WordPress settings, Widgets and Plugins. And, finally, you’ll get an in depth understanding of functionality that comes with the blog.
Introduction
- Who is this for?
- Learning paths
- learn WordPress in a vacuum
- learn WordPress in the course of creating a website
Installing WordPress for the first time on your Primary domain
Installing WordPress on an addon domain
Installing WordPress on a subdomain
Tour the WordPress File System
- Root directory terminology
- 3 types of root directories
- hosting account
- webserver
- website
- 3 types of root directories
- The location of WordPress files on your primary domain
- The location of WordPress files on other domains
- WordPress files Summary
- Core files
- Non-core files
A Tour of the WordPress Admin Interface
- Logging into WP
- 2 sides of a WordPress site
- public/front
- admin/back
- Get rid of the junk ware
- Admin screen
- Admin toolbar
- Admin menu
- Admin widgets
- Quick tour
Initial Setup of WordPress
- User
- Settings
3 Different Faces of WordPress
- Default – like a blog – http://livesimplyrural.com/
- handful of informational pages
- mostly posts
- categorized posts
- Traditional – without a blog – http://dendronlmc.com/
- Hybrid – jackiejacobson.com
Configuring WordPress to be like a Traditional Website
- Create 2 pages
- Reading settings
Configuring WordPress for Optimum SEO
- Permalink Settings
- Search engine visibility
Using the WordPress Text Editor
- Different views of the text editor
- 2 Modes
- Dashboard Mode
- Full Screen Mode
- 2 Views
- Visual View
- HTML View
- 2 Modes
- Dashboard Mode Interface – Visual View
- Media tool
- View Tabs
- Toolbar
- minimal view
- kitchen sink view
- tool tips
- Full Screen Mode – Visual View
- Toolbar
- Media tool
- help
- Dashboard Mode – HTML View
- Media tool
- Toolbar
- Full Screen Mode – HTML View
Pasting Text from Word Processors into the WordPress Text Editor
- Inserting Text from Word
- Elements of the sample document
- headings
- font size
- bold
- italic
- Direct Paste
- Paste using “paste from Word”
- Paste to HTML
- Elements of the sample document
- Inserting Text from Google Docs
- Direct Paste
- Paste using “paste from Word”
- Paste to HTML
- Rules to live by
- Paste as little formatting as possible
- Do all text formatting in WordPress
- Check delete from within HTML view
- Use of Lorem Ipsum text
Styling Content for Readability Using Headings and Lists
- Markup for SEO
- Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide – Section 3 – Optimizing Content
- Stay organized around a single topic
- Create content primarily for users
- Use heading tags appropriately
- Use headings to provide logical outline
- heading tags – h1 through h6
- Imagine you are writing an outline
- 1 h1 tag per page
- h2 for main subject breakdown
- h3 for sub headings
- h4 for sub sub headings
- Use bold, links or italics to emphasize key text
- Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide – Section 3 – Optimizing Content
- Markup for Readability
- People don’t read – they scan
- Use headings to break up and summarize content
- Use lists instead of paragraph text to itemize important points
- Use bold or italics to emphasize key text
- Adding links to text
- What is a link?
- SEOSG – Write better anchor text
- Selecting good link text
- Tells users (and Google) something about the page being linked to
- Choose descriptive text
- Use internal links
- Insert link tool
- URL
- title
- Open link in new tab
- Link to existing content
- Search
- Rules
- Never use headings for styling
- Minimize inline styles
- Don’t shout
- Don’t have long blocks of uninterrupted text
Inserting Images into your Pages
- WordPress Media Settings
- The Role of Image Sizes
- Image Sizes
- Thumbnail
- Medium
- Large
- Featured Image
- Inserting Images within the content
- width of content column – 640px
- insert image from computer
- insert image from media library
- Aligning images and text
- Featured image
Adding Videos to your Pages
- YouTube
- url
- Vimeo
- iframe
- url
Adding PDFs to your Pages
- Insert Media
- Upload
Adding Audio to your Pages
- Insert media
- Upload
- Shortcodes
Creating Menus in WordPress
- Adding pages
- Add the home page
- Customize the menu labels
- Adding Categories
- Adding links to other sites
- Rearranging menu items
- Creating drop down menus
Setting Menu Locations
- Creating multiple menus
- Manage locations
- Themes have different menu locations
Understanding WordPress Themes
- What a Theme does
- Themes that come pre-installed
- Switching between themes
- View the difference
- What doesn’t change when you change themes?
- Things that change when you change themes
Finding & Installing Free WordPress Themes
- Theme search
- Theme preview
- Install from Dashboard
- View the difference
- Where to find free themes
Installing Premium WordPress Themes
- Finding and purchasing
- reputable sources
- Woothemes
- WPMUDev
- StudioPress
- DIYThemes
- reputable sources
- Download
- Install from the Dashboard
Simple WordPress Theme Customization
- Header image
- Background image/color
Understanding WordPress Page Settings
- Screen Options
- Moving stuff around
- Publish
- Status
- Visibility
- Revisions
- Published
- Attributes
- Parent
- Template
- Order
- The rest
Understanding WordPress Widgets
- What’s a Widget?
- A module that adds content or functionality to a page
- Can only be placed in a widget area
- Understanding the Widgets panel
- Sidebars
- Available widgets
- Inactive widgets
- Add a widget to a widget area
- Parts of a widget
- Title
- Settings
- Arrange widgets within a widget area
- Different themes have different widget areas
Types of WordPress Widgets
- Blog related widgets
- Archives
- Calendar
- Categories
- Recent Comments
- Recent Posts
- RSS
- Tag Cloud
- Safely Ignored Widgets
- Meta
- Widgets Useful on a Static Site
- Custom Menu
- Pages
- Search
- Text
Understanding WordPress Plugins
- What’s a plugin?
- A module that adds functionality to your site
- Does not necessarily display anything on a page
- Understanding the plugin dashboard
- plugin navigation
- bulk actions
- plugin status
- Name
- Description
- Action links
- Author link
- Plugin link
- Updating Plugins
Installing WordPress Plugins
- Quick Installation Method
- Install screen
- admin screen links
- search form
- browse tags
- Search for term – Contact Form 7
- Select from list
- View Details
- Install – Contact Form 7
- activate
- Add the contact form to a page using a shortcode
- Shortcodes in sidebars
Add contact information using a text widget
- Add text widget to your sidebar
- Add a title to the widget
- Add Contact Information
- Automatically add paragraphs
Create an Opt-in Form using a text widget
- Install Black Studio TinyMCE Widget
- Text based Call to Action
- title – centered h3
- phone number link
- heading link – centered h4
- text
- Opt-in form
- get the code
- paste the code
Add a video using a text widget
- Get the video embed code
- Set the width correctly
- Add a title
- Add the code
Using the WordPress Blog Functionality
- History – WordPress is fundamentally a blog application
- Create individual posts
- Blog page shows posts with latest at the top
- Automatically creates pages with grouped posts
- Blog organization
- Categories
- Tags
- Date
- Author
- Categories
- Usage
- Should be used for URLs
- Can be used for navigation
- 1 category per post
- Creating Categories
- Creating Sub Categories
- Category names
- Names you should not use
- same name as page as a page
- Reserved names
- blog
- page
- post
- category
- tag
- archive
- Good naming convention
- short
- descriptive
- Viewing category pages
- Adding categories to the menu
- Usage
- Tags
- Usage
- No SEO benefit
- Can have many tags
- Used for navigation
- Creating Tags
- No sub tags
- Viewing tag pages
- Adding tags to the menu
- Tag cloud widget
- Usage