I attended my first WordPress conference last week in Bethlehem, PA. My key takeaways from the presentations I attended are divided into two blog posts; this is part 2. Part 1 is here.
Migrating to Gutenberg: The End User Edition
Presented by Donna Botti, Delos, Inc.
Gutenberg is the new block-based content editor for WordPress. According to WordPress, “Gutenberg is available as part of WordPress 5.0 and later. The Classic Editor plugin allows users to switch back to the previous editor if needed. Future development will continue in the Gutenberg plugin.” Also, according to WordPress, “The Classic Editor plugin will be officially supported until December 31, 2021.” In other words, you should start planning for the change now. You can’t stop updating WordPress and its plugins, because you’ll be exposing your websites to security risks. Donna Botti’s presentation was about how to manage this transition for your customers.
Donna said that your customers need to know WIIFM: what’s in it for me? People don’t like change, but you’ll need to show them that Gutenberg will make customer-side updates easier and more intuitive. She covered a ten-step plan in detail, emphasizing constant sensitivity to and communication with your clients. Make sure servers are up to date, and clean up unused or outdated functionality, pages, themes, plugins and users. As with any change, set up a test site, and have a backup and a rollback plan. Train your customers, again focusing on the advantages for them. Old posts can stay in Classic Editor; this came as a huge relief to bloggers in the audience.
SEO Basics, Plugins, Resources, and Tools
Presented by Pam Aungst, Pam Ann Marketing
Pam’s definition of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is “influencing search engines to rank your content high in search results,” to reach high-intent-to-buy customers. She explained that the process search engines follow is crawl, index and rank, which to a non-technical person can be thought of as discover, collect and sort. Pam said that you need to make your site easily crawlable, so your content gets indexed by search engines.
For content, use the same keywords your target audience is searching with. Organize your content logically, and internally link your pages. Search engines prefer sites that add new content on a regular basis, so keep up with your blog posts. Get reputable and relevant websites to link to your site; never buy links. Build up social media “signals” on your content – comments, likes, retweets, etc. If you are looking for local customers for your business, create name, address and phone number (NAP) data on sites such as Superpages.com.
Pam said that 65% of internet searches are on phones, so you need to prioritize making your site mobile-friendly. Implement Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), indicated by a lighting bolt icon in mobile search results. Use schema.org to provide additional data to search engines. Make sure your site is secure, or you will be excluded from search results.
Pam recommended a list of WordPress plugins for SEO, compressing files, increasing speed, generating schema markup, fixing broken links, and creating a site map. She shared so many resources and tools that it’s impossible to summarize them all here. Here are some additional resources from Google itself.