I led a WordPress for Small Business Websites Q&A panel at WordCamp Grand Rapids 2013. We discussed goals, strategy, content, analytics, speed and performance, social media, SEO, and generally making sites effective. Below is a video of the panel discussion, followed by paraphrased versions of the questions asked by the audience. I'm so thankful for […]
People frequently ask, "How much does a website cost?" I've heard one web designer reply, "How long is a piece of string?" Others use the car analogy: "How much does a car cost?" I like to use a house construction metaphor. I say, "Building a website is like building a house. I can build you […]
I use the WP-DBManager plugin to keep my WordPress databases clean. I like things neat and tidy, so it annoys me when I see unnecessary tables in my WordPress databases. These are often left over from deleted plugins. Some plugins delete their data from the database, but many don't, preserving your data in case you […]
BackWPup is a free WordPress plugin that automatically backs up your WordPress database and files. You can back up to your web server, or send your backups offsite (highly recommended). I back my sites up to SugarSync, but you can also back up to Dropbox, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Rackspace Cloud, and other services. […]
Step-by-step instructions to copy and migrate a WordPress site with the free Duplicator plugin.
These are excellent tutorials and resources for learning the WordPress Admin Area (AKA Administration Screens). I first published these resources for my WordCamp Grand Rapids presentation The WordPress Admin Area: A Guided Tour. I've kept this post updated since then. Free Text & Screenshot Guides Free Video Tutorials Paid Video Tutorials Paid Books Need Help with […]
The Antispam Bee plugin is my favorite free anti-spam plugin for WordPress. I've used it for years on several sites, and it's extremely effective. It integrates right into the default commenting system in WordPress. It doesn't work with Jetpack Comments or forms (Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, etc.). Why not use Akismet? It's excellent and free […]
I've been changing the permalink structure for WordPress sites to simply postname, and you can do the same! I'll show you how to generate the redirects you need. In the past, I've configured WordPress to use the permalink structure Day and Name, which formats the URLs for posts as /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/. Although I knew that a […]
