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2019 Meetup Notes

WordPress Notes and Links: February 2019

How to Find Us

Join the Las Vegas WordPress Meetup group on Meetup.com and stay updated on meetings. Read our blog for notes on previous meetings. And when you have a question during any other time, post it in our Facebook Group.

Do you want to speak on a topic? Let John know!

WordCamp Orange County, April 27th & 28th

John is attending and speaking at WordCamp Orange County. Learn more and purchase tickets here.

Coming Soon Page

Jason James runs the SEO agency Bright Advice and introduced the group to the Coming Soon Page and reasons why you might want to have one:

  • It looks professional.
  • It gives you time to properly plan your website.
  • It allows you to set the stage for your online presence and credibility.

Recommended Plugin: Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode Plugin by SeedProd

Jason demonstrated the premium version and here are some things to note:

  • The Coming Soon page can act as a bypass, allowing logged in users to see the live site.
  • The Pro version comes with already installed themes.
  • It took only 15 minutes for Jason to set up a Coming Soon page, which included a countdown timer, while we watched.

Other reasons to consider having a Coming Soon page:

  • You can use it to notify site visitors that the URL is for sale.
  • You can set the site up for SEO in advance, prior to launch. A Coming Soon page will get indexed by search engines, so long as your site is not set to “maintenance mode.”

Jason also runs the meetings for the Las Vegas A.I. & Chatbots Meetup Group.

Schema Markup

Kenny Eliason is the founder of NeONBRAND, an SEO and Digital Marketing Agency. He also runs the Las Vegas SEO Meetup group and spoke to us about schema markup. Schema is how you tell search engines like Google what is exactly at your website. He uses Schema Press, but if you’re already using Yoast, it does this for you. He recommends watching this video from Yoast.

Take a look at Kenny’s slideshow presentation for more in-depth information on schema markup and why you should implement it on your WordPress site.

Audience Questions

  • Q: Why would I be getting error messages?
  • A: It’s probably a plugin conflict.
  • Q: I use Gmail and my contact form doesn’t seem to be working.
  • A: It’s probably a Google conflict. Try an SMTP plugin. MailGun.com could be another possible solution.
  • Q: What are some services I could use to get people to subscribe?
  • A: Try MailChimp or Constant Contact.

Another great resource for information is WPBeginner.

Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 6 p.m. at The InNEVation Center, who donates the space for free.

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