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Wordpress websites

Ten Essential WordPress Plugins For Every WordPress Website.

Plugins are little apps that extend the functionality of WordPress. The core of WordPress is designed to be lean, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs. Since WordPress is an open source program, there are lots of people that develop plugins and offer them to the WordPress community, most of them for free.

Here are the ten essential WordPress plugins that I always include with each newly installed WordPress Website we build.  For instructions and information on downloading, installing, upgrading, troubleshooting, and managing your WordPress Plugins, see Managing Plugins. You will want to activate each plugin that you import and then most of them have some easy configuration to take care of  before they work. You can find their configuration areas on the dashboard after they are activated. [click to continue…]

Is This You?

  • Do you need to project a polished branded look that reflects what and who your business is to the world?
  • Are you ready to show people you are an expert in your field with excellent, regularly scheduled posts?
  • Would you like your site to show up for the keywords people use when they search for your business?
  • Could you use an easy to manage, social media plan that uses your website as its easy to operate hub?

We love working with small businesses and entrepreneurs, offering full service from business strategy consultation, to branding, logo design, and customized WordPress website development and social media marketing.

Take a look at our Portfolio page. Schedule a  “Talk it Out Session,” a consulting hour packed with ideas, teaching and strategies for taking your business to the next level. To make the next steps easier we have designed three web design packages to meet different needs and price points. Take a look around and if it is a fit, schedule your Talk it Out Session today!

Why Re-Design Your Website?

I  just read a great post called Why Redesign Your Website? by HubSpot which is a SEO marketing Company that is pretty darn on target. I really liked what they said. One of the main points is that sure you have to have a well done site that is polished and put together, but…. the point is getting more visitors and leads, So you do a redesign if you are not on a Content Management Site (CMS) platform, not because you are bored with the design or because your CEO wants a new logo design.

Marketing guru, Seth Godin says,

“I’m going to go out on a limb and beg you not to create an original design. There are more than a billion pages on the web. Surely there’s one that you can start with? …Your car isn’t unique, and your house might not be either”.

The founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweig once said to me ( I love that he actually, in person,  said this to me)

“I wonder why any developer would build a theme from scratch for a client when there are over 5000 themes to customize and save them time and money”

Great content is a most important activity on your website and adding the content on a regular basis drives people to your site. Which is most easily done with a Content Management Site such as WordPress and they should absolutely include a blog, RSS and landing pages.

Any website built today should include these basics.  They are not expensive, and they work.  A blog is a great way to create content on an ongoing basis, and to start to converse with your customers and prospects and RSS allows some content from your website to be automatically pushed out to other websites and people, increasing the reach of your content.

So take these words to heart and when you find yourself spending too much time with what the banner should look like. Yes, it should look sharp, but it really matters more that you get your content out there with the right technology, the right navigation, and a way to start and keep adding more content on a regular basis.

I am talking to a woman today who had her site redesigned over a year ago and it still has not gone live because she was paralyzed over the design the technology choices and her wording. I agree, for someone new to all of this it can be daunting. And there is a lot of competing information out there. There is a lot of OLD school information out there. Like selling people SEO services around key words and metatags, or people still building static, non-owner friendly sites that the site owner has to pay the developer every time they want it updated! At New Tricks, we really try and make it easy for you. Yes, of course we believe in good design, but it is important not to let your obsession on perfection stop you from doing it now.