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2018 Meetup Notes

WordPress Notes and Links: October 2018

We had two presentations for you this month, followed by a Q&A session. So, remember to bring your WordPress questions and we’ll walk through them as a group each month.

Blogging with WordPress

Las Vegas WordPress Meetup organizer, John Hawkins, addressed what seems like a basic topic, but since he gets lots of questions about it, he thought it was a good idea to touch on the subject.

When you’re writing a blog, focus on content. One of the ways he comes up with topics is by using AnswerThePublic.com. He says using this tool kills the excuse, “I don’t know what to write about.” Another way to look at topics is like this:

  • Tips – Mostly
  • Industry News – Definitely
  • Company News – Sometimes

Try not to focus your blog content solely on yourself or your company. Once you have a topic in mind, do some SEO / keyword research on it. Try Keywords Everywhere. However, here’s a very important tip: focus your blog content on topics that your audience will like, not just what Google will like.

More SEO tips:

  • Keep a keyword or key phrase in mind and use it in the URL, blog post title, and first paragraph.
  • Place interlinks (links to other pages or posts on your website) within the blog post content.
  • Place external links (links to trusted outside resources) within the blog post content.
  • Try the Yoast plugin for SEO guidance and recommended keywords.

Break up your content. Use paragraphs, headers, and images. Apply one to two categories per blog post. No single blog post needs to be categorized in 27 different categories. Tags are another taxonomy, and John questions their use. However, they do allow for a nice descriptor of a blog post or category.

Use images! They help. Use a fantastic one for your featured image. Crop accordingly for your theme. Try Unsplash for more realistic type of images that don’t look like your standard stock image. Create images to be used for social sharing, too!

Here’s a great resource for finding places for images: 120+ Places to Find Creative Commons Media. Also, don’t discount the SEO value of images that you use. Read this article: 2018 Search Market Share: Myths vs. Realities of Google, Bing, Amazon, Facebook, DuckDuckGo, & More.

Leave a call to action at the end of your blog post:

  • Sign up for a newsletter (think MailChimp).
  • Invite them to leave a comment (this encourages engagement).
  • Invite them to “Go here to read more,” which leads them to another page or blog post on your website.

Lastly, after you have published, promote the living crap out of your blog post. Share it on all of your social media channels.

Digital Strategy

David Mayne presented his tips for digital strategy. You can see his full presentation here. Below are some quick notes from his talk.

  • Know your goals (i.e., convert list, make a sale, get people to understand your ideas).
  • Know your target profiles (know who your customers are).
  • Use social media to create connections.

Eight steps to digital success:

  • Analyze digital assets.
  • Optimize digital assets.
  • Create engagement.
  • Influence people to do things.
  • Traffic means relevance to Google.
  • Communication is key.
  • Conversion is about goal setting.
  • Measure everything you can.

Why choose WordPress?

  • Google loves WordPress.
  • It integrates well with marketing tools.
  • It’s easy to learn.
  • Page Builders make WordPress even easier to build.
  • The developer community is accessible and helpful.

Don’t change your strategy until you have data to support that change. David really emphasizes the importance of measuring and optimizing and knowing your ROI.

WordCamp Las Vegas

WordCamp 2018 just couldn’t happen due to lack of venue. But there are plans to making WordCamp Las Vegas 2019 happen; we just don’t have a date set yet.

Resources

When you’re wondering which tools and plugins to use on your website, John has a Recommendations page set up on his website at VegasGeek.com.

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