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Beginning anything new can be daunting and when it comes to technology, people are often overwhelmed with options and decisions. WordPress provides a platform for your business website that grows and flexes with you. However, it too can be challenging to navigate. This episode gives you a clear plan to help you set up and start using WordPress for your website. It'll highlight each step with an explanation and give you a summary as a list of bullet points at the end. I'm delighted you're interested in using WordPress or already use it for your website. It's a great platform and by investing time in the process, you'll end up with a website that supports and develops your online presence.

Changing your website platform is not as difficult as you may think. And it's much more common in the small business world than we often expect. However, if you don't know how to do it properly, it may seem like you're trying to climb Mount Everest without oxygen. This episode is the oxygen to that epic mountain climb. It explores the reasons why people may decide to move their website to WordPress and walks you through the process of implementing the change on your own website. Ultimately making the decision to change your website platform is probably the most stressful part. But when you have, it'll be relative plain sailing from there if you follow my process. And if the cortisol is still running through your veins at the mere thought of doing it yourself, find yourself a web designer and they will get those nerves calmed down.

The term 'multisite' could be confusing. Perhaps it's one that has many uses like a Swiss Army knife. Perhaps it has lots of teeny tiny sites squashed into one website. Thankfully it's much more straight forward than either of these ridiculous suggestions. This episode explains what a multisite is and what the advantages are for having this set up with their WordPress websites. It'll also explore why it's not for everyone. We'll even look at some example businesses too and chat about how it's the right solution for the. Having more than one WordPress website to run your business is a challenge but with the multisite set-up, anything is possible with WordPress!

Getting your website seen by as many potential clients is the goal and the raison d'être of having a website. However, when you are at the mercy of search engine bots and have to make sure they are all kept happy, it makes getting seen much more challenging. This episode is all about how we can optimise our business website for those search engine bots and for the people that actually visit the website. We'll look at the tools available to us for a website in general and then more specifically for a website built on WordPress. Please note that just because the focus is WordPress, we'll be covering some basic search engine optimisation know-how that is just as useful for websites on other platforms.

Building a website in WordPress can be tricky. So those clever web developers came up with a clever device for people to use to make designing much more intuitive. These are called page builders. This episode goes into detail about what they are and why they're useful as well as talking about why sometimes page builders are not a good idea for your WordPress website. Page builders truly showcase the flexible nature of WordPress as they come in all shapes and sizes and you can use them or not. Either way your website is going to be fabulous but for some, having a page builders makes it both fabulous and much easier to work with!

We are all familiar with organising our time using diaries and calendars. We know it's nice to organise kitchen drawers with cutlery inserts. So when it comes to websites, we shouldn't be surprised that there is a smart way to organise your content. This episode looks at what a custom post type is and why they can help you create a much more organised WordPress website. It'll look at how to use custom post types effectively to improve the structure and make it better for your website visitors. Having a custom post type may take a few of your grey cells to understand but once the penny drops, you'll be wondering why more people don't use them on their websites. A classic no brainer situation.

One thing I hear over and over again when it come to websites is that people really struggle with understanding what on earth us web designers are talking about! We babble on about user roles, the media library, posts, pages, links, urls, seo, categories, tags and many more thing. If you don't work with WordPress every day, it could leave you feeling confused and bemused. This episode looks at the most confusing terms and breaks down what they are and why you should know about them. I want you to feel less fearful when these words get thrown your way when building your website or working with a web designer. By untangling the jargon, we can help make WordPress that little bit easier for you to digest.

You want your website to allow people to sign up to your monthly newsletter. You want your website to show a calendar of upcoming events. You want it to do the leg work for you when you can't be there to pick up the phone. Enter plugins. These turn your website from words on a page to a living breathing entity that truly supports you and your business. This episode explains what a plugin is and why they are essential for your website. We'll look at what sorts of plugins you should have on your WordPress website and where to find them as well as what they cost. Knowing how to make the most out of your website is so important. It seems silly to not take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer you and your business. And plugins are one of the key ways you can do this.

There are so many decisions to make when setting up a new website and the first thing that people often think about is how it's going to look. They daydream about the colours, the look of the pages, where the logo is going to sit and how big the images are going to be. WordPress has your back for sorting all this out. They have themes. This episode will discuss what a theme is and what elements it controls on your website. It'll explore why the theme choice is an important starting point for your website project and will help you to figure out which theme to select.

People are fascinated about why things are the way they are and some even get DNA tests to find out who their ancestors were. Understanding the history of a person, place or concept is great for giving us perspective about where we stand in the present. The same is true for website platforms. This episode looks back at the birth of WordPress and explores the evolution of it to become the world's leading content management system. We'll talk about the people involved and what happened to them and look at the companies that use it for their own websites. WordPress is a platform that has so far stood the test of time and by looking at its history, we have the context of what the future holds for it. Let's dive in!

Being able to define what you can offer your potential customers and displaying it in a way they can understand is essential to the success of your website. Your services page should sing your praises loud and proud and get right to the nitty gritty of what you and your business can do, This episode deals with 3 key sections your services page should have and then goes into some further suggestions and ideas that you could include to further enhance it. A strong services page ensures your potential customer is left in no doubt about what you offer and can make a solid judgment about whether you are the business for them.

For many the word 'blog' is old news and we all think we know what it is and when to use it. However, when we look at putting a blog on our business website, it needs to be with good reason and so more deeper exploration is needed.This episode looks at what we mean by a blog as well as offering reasons why a blog could be beneficial for your business website. It also looks at topics you could write about in your blog and how that content can be used more than once. In fact a blog page may be the very thing you were looking for to make your business website shine even brighter and get you those new clients you've been waiting for.

Every business has a different reason for building a website - it might be to sell flowers online, promote their conveyancing services or both. However, if your potential customers need to contact you about the service or product and you don't have a clear and easy way to do this, you may end up jeopardising your success.This episode is all about how to create a contact page that fits you and your business. I'll cover the features that should most definitely be on there and there's even a mention of the customer journey for those who love to talk about UX.

Arriving on a new website can be quite daunting. Will it sell what I'm looking for? Where do I go to find that information? How does the menu work? All completely normal questions. So where do you usually look for help. The About page. Finding out who is behind the business name and understanding a bit more about what they are trying to achieve can really help. This episode explores what information you may like to include in your About page and walks you through some key sections to help you structure it more effectively. I also offer my honest opinion about whether you should include a photo of yourself or not. Hint: go to my website and see what I did!

Planning a business website at first glance looks simple. You need information about you and your business on your new website and you have a lovely web designer all signed up to help you. However, have you thought about how many pages you're going to have? Do you know what content you're going to need on those pages? What happens when someone visits your website? What journey do you want them to go on? In fact there are many questions that you'll need to answer and in this episode I talk you through how you can make the process more streamlined and more focussed with the use of a sitemap. Your lovely web designer will most definitely thank you for listening.Hosted by Amy GumbrellProduced by Vibrant Sound MediaVisit twocowsweb.co.uk for more information