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Important Pieces of WordPress to Update

Many business owners do not realize that when you have a website designed in WordPress that there are some maintenance issues that you have to deal with on a regular basis. As long as you keep these pieces of your site up to date you should see no issues. You can easily do these WordPress updates yourself if you know what is necessary to do so.

There are a few important pieces of WordPress that must be updated. Usually WordPress, in all its greatness, alerts you of these pieces. Popular updates which WordPress alerts you of on a regular basis are plugin updates, theme updates, and WordPress installation updates.

You can easily follow the prompts to make these updates. It is really simple.

Watch the following screencast, where I will show you how to make a couple quick and easy WordPress updates.

You will want to check the top of your dashboard regularly for two possibilities for updates. They are the theme updates and the updates to WordPress. Both will have a banner and an opportunity to update. The plugin updates can be found on the left side.

In the event you have updates to all three at once, you will need to update them in a specific order so you do not break your site.

FIRST, the Theme needs to be updated. Click on the “update now” and on the next page “Click here to complete the upgrade.”

SECOND, are the Plugins you will want to update. Click on “Plugins” on the left and you will see yellow banners for the ones that need updating. Click “update now” on each banner and when they are updated there will be a green updated banner.

THIRD is the WordPress update. If you are updating WordPress you will want to run a backup on your site. You can install a plugin, such as BackWPup, in order to back up your site first.

This is a simple but important process to keep your website up to date. If you need help with this contact me here.

Do You Know Who is Visiting Your Website?

By Alyssa Avant

Do you have the proper tools in place that will allow you to track your website visitors? Know what search terms they are entering to get to your site? How about if they stuck around or shared their contact information with you?

If you’re shaking your head no, then I have some important information for you. If you’re not tracking visitors or don’t know who is visiting your website and why, you could be leaving money on the table. As business owners this is the last thing we want.

In order to get in tune with why visitors are coming to your site and who is sticking around you need to do a couple of things in addition to the essential website elements that every website needs.

Click Here to Get the Ultimate WordPress Website Checklist

Install Google Analytics to your website. If you are using WordPress. this is super simple. You can simply install the Google Analyticator plugin and follow the steps to set it up.

Google Analytics allows you to track visitors, find out where they come from, and what they click on. Google is about to release a new real time Analytics; I cannot wait for it to officially launch.

Connect your website to Google Search Console. This will enable you to see even more behind-the-scenes information about what people are searching for when they land on your site from Google. It will give you the information you need to help you improve the search presence of your website on the Google search engines. Specifically, it can tell you where you rank in the search engines for specific keywords you may be trying to get others to come to your website for. Meaning, it tells you if you are on page 1 or page 1000 for that specific keyword.

As you can see in the image above, which is for this website, I am on page 1 for the search term “alyssa avant,” but on page 49 for the search term “how to use leadpages.”

This can be valuable information to you as you attempt to have people find your website by searching for certain terms.

You also want to be sure to have lead magnets on your website. To ensure that your visitors become email subscribers, you will also want an enticing freebie for your visitors. This could be a free audio, a checklist, a special report, or an ebook relevant to your target market, of course. In exchange for your lead magnet, also known as a freebie or freemium, you would collect their name and email address.

Opt-ins are done a little differently now than they have been done in the past. Gone are the days when you can slap a sign up box in the sidebar of your website and get sign ups. It is now better to use a landing page or to use a content upgrade or leadbox right in the body of your blog post, as you can see in this blog post!

This lead magnet should be attached to an email service provider. My favorite one is ActiveCampaign, (this is an affiliate link, which means I will get a small commission if you purchase through it), but you could also use Aweber or Mailchimp. This will allow you to communicate with those who have opted in.

Need to have these pieces integrated into your website but don’t know how? We can help. Click here to schedule a 20 Minute Free Consultation with me.

Your Website – The Right Way

By Alyssa Avant

Building a website the right way will ensure you get plenty of traffic – Not just today, but repeatedly over time. Most people who get started in web marketing try to cut corners and end up getting nowhere. The reality is, if you build your website the right way from the start, you’ll be able to create a very nice stream of traffic and income for months and years to come.

What Makes a Successful Website?

A successful website is based on giving real value to your visitors. These are websites that people will actually pass on to their friends because the content is so useful. If you create a genuine online asset, that’s when the payoff really comes.

Why Great Content Matters

There’s a saying in the world of journalism: “Content is King.”

It doesn’t matter how pretty your site is or how good you are at writing copy. If the actual content, the real meat of your website isn’t good, then you’re not going to succeed.

Having great content will mean having your content passed around, getting links, and getting ranked. Make sure your content is truly first class.

Work With, Not Against, Google

It’s true that you can game Google for a short period of time. However, eventually Google will update their algorithm and put these kinds of sites out of business.

It really doesn’t make any sense to try and game your way around Google when you can actually give Google what it wants instead.

What does Google want? Good, high quality, relevant content for its searchers. If you give Google’s users that, then every time Google updates it’s algorithm you’ll win instead of lose.

Connect With Your Visitors

Connecting with your visitors is key. If you can build a real relationship with the people you’re serving, you’ll get both links and traffic.

You’ll also start to become better and better known in your market. If you treat your market as just a “target market” to market to, you will get some traffic and sales. However, if you treat your market like you’re talking to real people, then you’ll actually start to build trust and a reputation in your industry.

That is how you get your visitors to come back countless times in the future. You’ll become the go-to person in your niche. That is what you want.