Monthly Archives: January 2013

The WordPress Myth: Manage Your Own Website

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“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”  ~Napolean Bonaparte

In many cases I would have to agree with the little guy. But he died centuries before WordPress and other Content Management Systems came to be.

WordPress Logo I am a big fan of what WordPress has become.  Starting as a great way to blog it has matured into a superb CMS.  But the one thing I disagree with is that it is easy for a non-technical user to manage. There are constant updates needed to the software and plugins.  As many of these changes are to shore up security concerns, you can’t ignore them or put yourself in jeopardy of being hacked.


So a few questions:
Do you feel comfortable making the changes to your WordPress and plugins?
Have you made changes to your theme? If you update the theme files, will your customizations be wiped out? (this happens when there is no child theme)
Do you have a backup plugin in place in case one of the updates cripples your site? (it happens)

Setting Up a WordPress Website
Although the thousands of available themes look nice and fit the requirements of many businesses, they are not all easy to set up.  The more available features, the longer it takes to get up and running.

Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong, WordPress is fabulous, you certainly can blog yourself, edit content, add photos and more with little or no help.  But unless you have the time and the skillset needed to keep your WordPress site up to date, hire a professional to help you to set up and manage your website.

 

RooSites SEO Tip #1

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The first question that potential clients ask me is: How can I be number one in Google? Well, there is no simple answer to that question, and certainly no magic bullet. And no one can guarantee a number one ranking. But one thing is clear, and that is the goal of Google and other search engines. That goal is to provide the user with the best possible search results.

Now, there are thousands of SEO firms out there, all promising things they cannot possibly deliver. They employ tricks rather than common sense. RooSites Works with clients to create a constant stream of relevant content. Now a website with four or five pages, no matter how well it optimized cannot beat you, if you are constantly adding new, quality content.

For example, say you were a child psychologist, and you were posting articles relevant to child psychology a couple of times a week. At the end of year one you have added 100 new articles or blog posts all of which are indexed by Google.

As we say on my SEO page, we try and follow Google’s webmaster guidelines. Here is what it says on the “Google-friendly sites” page.

“Give visitors the information they’re looking for: Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.”

Seems like common sense advice, but website owners across the globe fall for the silly emails from SEO companies big on promises, but small on delivery. So, follow RooSites SEO tip #1, create a stream of quality relevant content. You will be glad you did, and your search rankings will improve.