Are you pleased with your website’s Home page? The way it looks, its design, and most important, its effectiveness? If not, read on!
Beneath your Menu bar (sometimes called the Navigation bar–it’s at the top of your web page) is yourmost important real estate anywhere online. It’s referred to as the area, “above the fold,” or “above the scroll,” meaning the part of your Home page readers can see without having to scroll further down the page to see it all.
More visitors will see this area than any other on your website. Ever. It has a vital job: to get your visitor’s attention and inspire them to sign up for your free resource (called a Lead Magnet in marketing speak).
Within this “above the fold” area, the most effective websites include two columns. They’re not visually separated into columns, but you want each column’s contents to take up approximately the same amount of width and height.
Include the following elements in either the right or left column areas:
A great, color photo of YOU that takes up that area of the page “above the fold,” along with your name and title (Author, Public Relation Expert, whatever’s applicable). That should fill the entire “above the scroll” space but not spill out from it.
In the second, opposite column, include four short areas of text and an opt-in button:
#1: a short description of your audience (my audience is Christian writers and speakers).
#2: your main headline for this area addressing the frustration or goal your audience seeks to change, OR a strong statement that will resonate with your audience.
#3: a single line of text shaped in the form of a promise or a result.
#4: two short paragraphs–only 1-2 sentences each–identifying the frustration or goal you know your audience is seeking to change.
Plus:
– an opt-in box that includes two small text boxes, one each for your reader’s first name and email address, and
– your CTA (call-to-action) button for readers to click or press after they’ve “signed up” for your free resource (added their name and email to receive it).
You’ve seen 100’s or 1,000’s of these opt-in boxes through your many years online.
It’s very important that the text on your call-to-action button is not the word, “SUBMIT.” No one wants to submit. To anything. Particularly not to a total stranger.
The Website Police aren’t going to drag you out of your home at 3AM if you use SUBMIT, but since we know readers find it offensive, why use it?
There are so many other, non-offensive options! In fact, text that’s related to your giveaway (called a Lead Magnet) is much wiser.
Say you’re giving away a checklist of various sizes and uses of skillets for gourmet cooks. Your CTB button text could be, “I need to use the right skillet!” Or if it fits your personality, consider, “Gimme the checklist!” or, “Checklist, please!”
You could also use a phrase as simple and direct as, “Sign me up!” or “I need this info!” Use whatever seems best to you.
Note that your website theme may have a limit on how many characters (letters) your CTA button allows. So, if you have a fun phrase but it has too many letters, simply experiment until you find a shorter version and you’re all set!
Studies show that filling your Home page’s area “above the fold” with an offer your audience considers a “must have” will spur growth.
Fill the balance of your Home page with pertinent content that seems right to you.
The options are limitless. Research competitors and near-competitors for fresh inspiration. No need to copy anyone. Christ is creative enough to give each of us a unique viewpoint for the message He’s gifted us to serve.
But keep your Home page’s area “above the fold” exclusive, using it only to showcase your current free resource (Lead Magnet).
Try it! You’ll like it! So goes the Alka-Seltzer marketing phrase from the early 70’s. 🙂
Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.
A homepage is like the lobby of your personal office building. When a visitor arrives at an office lobby, we want to do several things, including:
Make them welcome
Let them know if they’ve come to the right place
Let them know how to find what they need once they step inside.
The same goes for our homepage.
Many websites have a chatty homepage with some form of welcome from the writer. Something like: Hello, I’m Lisa. Welcome to my website, where I talk about…
While this approach is certainly welcoming, it’s not ideal. Because although your website URL may be your name, your website is primarily not about YOU, it’s about WHAT YOU OFFER—your products, ministry, and the solutions you provide for web visitors in need of hope, healing, encouragement, and positive entertainment.
Why does this matter?
Most visitors to your homepage have come looking for something. If they don’t find what they want they’ll try the next address on their search list.
You have only a few seconds to hook a visitor. If you don’t capture their attention immediately, they’ll move on.
If you don’t make it clear what your site is about, people who really need what you have to say may not realize it and leave before they get to your wonderful content.
In order to create a homepage that captures the interest of your target audience and guides them to your wonderful content that can help them, consider the following questions:
1.     Can a visitor get an inkling of what your site is about in a quick glance at your homepage? Â
Or do they see nothing but some pretty photos and a bit of vague text? Your tagline, logo, header image, font choices, and other design details all tell visitors something about what kind of site they’ve landed on. Are you giving them a clear message, or do these details obscure the real personality and purpose of your brand and your message?
Examples: A quick look at these four very different writer sites gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of thing they write.
Don’t despair if you don’t have the finances to make your site look as awesome as these ones. A simple site design can be just as effective. Do all you can to make design choices that give a clear message about the personality and purpose of your site.
2. Who is this site for?
Who is most likely to need what you have to offer? The more precisely you describe who you are aiming to help, the more likely they are to stay long enough to read what your site is about. Is your target audience young moms? People struggling to lose weight? Sports fans who love mysteries? People who wonder if God still exists? Whoever you write for, make that clear on your homepage.
3. What does my site offer?
People visit the web because they looking for something. They have a problem and they’re looking for a solution. You might have what they’re looking for, but do they know that by looking at your homepage? Do you make it clear what kinds of products and solutions you offer?
The Serious Writer homepage is a good example. The design is quite simple, but one glance at the header tells you exactly what they are about, and the text beside the photo describes who their intended audience is.
4. Is my site easy to read and navigate?
How readable is your text? Flowing script fonts may look beautiful, but they tend to be hard to read. Use them sparingly. Also watch out for small font sizes and insufficient contrast between text and background. The majority of visitors are looking at your site on their phones. If they can’t read your text, your message is worthless.
Likewise, your menu should clearly show where a visitor can click to find that they want. Make sure the commonly sought parts of your page (About, Contact, Books/Products, Blog) are clearly labeled and easy to find.
5. What do I want them to do next?
Someone has come to your homepage. They fit your target audience. They like what you say you can do for them. Great!
Now what?
You could let them click around on the menu to see what’s available, but a great homepage points visitors to your best content with an obvious call to action.
What are the one (or two) primary actions you want them to take?
Do you want them to buy your new book? Sign up for your newsletter? Take your quiz? Try your free webinar?
Guide visitors to that next step with simple text and compelling images.
Your turn
What can you do to improve your homepage? Choose one of the questions above and figure out how you can make your homepage even better.
An engineer-turned-mystery-writer, Lisa E. Betz infuses her novels with authentic characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her debut novel, Death and a Crocodile, won several awards, including Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021). Her second novel, Fountains and Secrets released January 2022, from Redemption Press.
Lisa combines her love of research with her quirky imagination to bring the world of the early church to life. She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in the Livia Aemilia Mysteries. Lisa sorts book donations at the library, directs church dramas, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes.
The Christian Authors Network’s innovative Crown Awards celebrate excellence in Christian Media and Marketing.
Purpose: To recognize, educate, and encourage excellence in marketing and promotion skills of all Christian authors. The awards are given in three categories:
Visual Media
Broadcasting
Web Presence
Carla Hoch is the CAN Marketing Web Presence Media Gold Award Winner for her promotion of her online brand, FightWrite™.
Carla past led to her studying self-defense and training women speaking on emotional abuse, precursors to physical violence, personal and emotional boundaries and tips for staying safe and escaping abusive scenarios. Carla started a blog after teaching about writing fight scenes at conferences.
Tell us about your blog.
FightWrite™ is a writer’s resource for writing fight scenes, action and violence of any kind. It covers all aspects of conflict: technical movement, biological precipitators and aftermath, psychological impact and the craft of putting it all together.
What led you to create it?
I was writing a book with fight scenes in it and didn’t know the first thing about fighting. So, I took a self-defense class. That class was the spark that launched me full throttle into martial arts. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn.
While attending the Realm Makers Writer’s Conference, I was asked to be on a panel regarding fight scenes. A conference coordinator knew a bit about my training and asked me to sit on the panel as a fighting “expert.” Far from expert, I sat on the panel and although there were many questions regarding the craft of writing, more often than not, writers just wanted to know about fighting, how to do it and how it felt.
The next year, at the same conference, the coordinators asked if I could do a live critique of a couple fight scenes. As a former high school teacher, I had plenty of experience teaching rowdy groups so I said, sure, why not? By that time, I had several years of training under my belt.
As I critiqued the fight scenes, I would demonstrate why they did or didn’t work. An editor friend of mine, Ben Wolf, who had some martial arts training assisted me. He let me throw him around and the crowd loved it. If you’ve never seen me, you might not appreciate the spectacle of it. I’m the size of a strapping fifth grade boy, plus, I’m a wee bit long in the tooth. I don’t look like someone who knows how to make a fist, much less what to do with it.
When I got off the stage, Quill Pen Editorial Services approached me about editing fight scenes for them. And it suddenly occurred to me how big a need there was for help in writing fight scenes. So, I got the crazy idea to start a blog. And, here I am, going stronger than ever since 2016.
How does your passion motivate you to promote your blog? What keeps you motivated?
It doesn’t. And, I am seldom motivated to write or promote or train. But that has no bearing on whether or not I work. If I only did what I was motivated to do I’d be in bed eating chocolate and watching reruns.
Motivation is like a fire. Sometimes there are lightning strikes that start the fire. But that is rare. For the most part, you have to create a fire. You can’t just look at the fireplace and think, when there is a fire in the fireplace, I will start the fire in the fireplace. You have to get up, get the ash out, get the wood and kindling in, light the thing and then tend do it.
Motivation is a beautiful thing. And the ugliest excuse.
You don’t have a lot of books, so what else is part of your brand?
I am a regular featured writer for Writer’s Digest and an instructor for Writer’s Digest University. I have a blog, FightWrite.net, to which I post regularly, as well as a podcast, and IG and YouTube channels. I teach at writers’ conferences, do contract mentoring and editing for individuals and publishers. I stay busy.
How has your personal training in fighting helped you develop a brand? What are your special areas of martial arts?
Fight training has toughened my resolve, muzzled my ego and created in me a dogged determination to be better tomorrow than I was today. It has taught me how to take punches, how to fall, and how to get back to my feet and that losing is not the same as being beaten. It has shown me the value of mistakes and that, more often than not, success is a battle of attrition. I don’t have to be the best. I just have to be the best at not giving up. But, above all, fight training has taught me that my greatest opponent is and will always be me. I have to believe in me, I have to be on my side or the battle will never end and without rest, a fighter is as good as dead.
Creating anything, whether it be a brand, book or boat, is a battle. It’s a battle against doubt, distractions and discouragement. It’s a battle against naysayers and those who believe your success lessens their own. Fighting hasn’t helped me develop my brand. It’s the backbone of it.
My fighting experience…ok, let me think here. I call it fight experience because not all falls into a category of martial art. I have training in: aikido, Brazilian jiujitsu, iaido (katana work), judo, MMA, Muay Thai, tae kwon do, Filipino Martial arts (bladework) street defense (self-defense with weaponry) and am learning some wrestling. I’ve also been taught a wee bit of kung fu. Of all I’ve studied, Brazilian jiujitsu is the one I keep coming back to. I train 5-6 days a week and compete every now and then. I’m competing in a world championship next month.
You won gold for your won gold for your brand FightWrite™ and your overhauled website. What made it more professional? What components should writers look at in changing their website?
After my first CAN award, I was interviewed by the wonderful Thomas Umstattd who runs Author Media and is the host of the Novel Marketing Podcast. If readers remember only one thing from this interview, it should be Thomas Umstattd. Seriously.
After the interview he was kind enough to chat with me and give me some hard truths. One of those was that my site needed a major overhaul. At that time, it was still a blogger site and cumbersome to navigate at best.
I took his Author Media classes on building a social media platform, made a million notes and followed every single one. My site looks like it does because of Thomas Umstattd and his classes. I still go back and listen to his podcasts for help in maintaining my site. I’m working on the SEOs right now and have almost doubled page views in one month.
Here are a few things I learned from Thomas:
1. Your site should have a clear purpose. Are you trying to sell more books? Are you building a brand or fan base? Be sure that the home page meets the needs of that purpose.
2. Have a few call-to-action buttons. You can have a million pages on your site. Take out the most important one, two or three and make buttons that send people directly to those pages. Leave the rest in a pull-down menu. I have three call-to-action buttons: Read the Blog, Buy the Book, Contact Me.
3. Do only what you can do. You don’t have to pay money for a professional site. But you need a site that looks professional. If you can do that using YouTube, go, you!
4. Listen to the Novel Marketing Podcast.
Why is it important to use a paid rather than a free website host?
I’m not sure it always is. If you can’t afford a paid host, I think you can still have a site that looks amazing. However, your web address will have the host’s name. Even though I owned the domain fightwrite.net, my actual address was fightingwrite.blogspot. And that was all I needed for the first few years when information was my only product.
Once I began teaching and writing for Writer’s Digest and booking more conferences, I needed more than the free site.
To overhaul my site, I went to Stormhill Media. They specialize in author websites. And, if you use them, tell them I sent you. You might get a wee discount.
It took a while to get traction on your site. What helped?
Thomas Umstattd. Seriously, I owe him a great deal. And, as I said, tweaking my SEOs has doubled my traffic in a month. SEO is Search Engine Optimization. It’s a tool that helps you rank higher on search engines. Whenever anyone Googles “writing fight scenes,” my SEOs help my site to pop up toward the top of the search results.
What incentives did you use to attract followers?
I give them something they need that’s just not out there in the way I present it.
Did you try marketing strategies that did not work for you? What did you learn from them?
First and foremost, I try to make quality blog posts. A problem I had at first was coming up with a blog idea and then trying to create a good SEO to make my post pop up whenever anyone searched for the topic. After listening to the Novel Marketing Podcast, I learned to FIRST look at what people were searching for and THEN create the blog.
Which aspects of marketing do you enjoy the most?
I like making IG posts. I’m kind of artsy.
Which aspects do you find most challenging?
All of it. Marketing myself or my book isn’t something I’m naturally good at. I have to really work at it.
What marketing advice can you give bloggers or podcasters that you wished you had gotten, or that you wish you would have heeded?
Everything happened for me in the time it should have. For others, do your research. Take courses on marketing your book, making a site, optimizing SEO. Take notes and have one goal at the time. And be patient with yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a web site.
How do you come up with new ideas for your podcast and blog?
I ask writers what they are looking for and I use AnswerThePublic.com. It’s a brilliant tool!
What’s involved in getting a trademark and why was that important to you?
The more work I did under the brand, the more aware I was that people could piggyback off my hard work. Getting a ™ is a matter of paperwork and fees. It can take a year or more for the ™ to become ®. A ™ is simply a place holder which announces to the world that you are seeking registration for something. The sticky part is if that ™ is challenged by another entity wanting a similar trademark or if another exists that is too similar.
Please share how you keep your site in the top 100 of Writer’s Digest sites for writers.
I can’t say for sure what WD is looking for in its Top Sites for Writers list. And, I don’t know if I’m on it until the list comes out. What I do know is that my site is the only of its kind.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers about your marketing or writing journey?
Don’t give up. Mohammed Ali estimated that over the course of his career he was struck some 29,000 times. Since then, research has shown that number is closer to 200,000. There are two things we can learn from that. One, Ali was more interested in moving forward than keeping up with the punches he took. Two, he never saw himself as less than the greatest of all time even when another fighter was able to tag him. Getting hit was just part of it of the process. He wasn’t the fighter he was despite the punches he took. He was who he was because he took them.
Your work will be criticized. You will be turned down. You will be discouraged. And that is good. It is all part of being a writer. Like Ali, you won’t be the writer you should become despite the punches. You will be the writer you should become because of the punches. Don’t give up. Consider the tough times as simply part of the process. And, there may be tough times when you may have to back away from writing. That is ok. It’s not a race. There’s enough success to go around.
Writers Chat, hosted by Jean Wise, Johnnie Alexander, and Brandy Bow, is the show where we talk about all things writing, by writers and for writers!
“Because talking about writing is more fun than actually doing it.”
WordPress Tour and Demonstration with Rhonda Dragomir
Creating a website can be challenging, but Rhonda’s tour, tips, and ideas make it easier. In today’s episode she demonstrates how to create a web page using a versatile theme and different plug-ins. Rhonda also shares the importance of page colors (hex codes), fonts, and images. For more information check out this week’s replay.
Watch the July 6th replay.
Rhonda Dragomir, website designer extraordinaire, is a multimedia creative who treasures her fairy tale life in Central Kentucky, insisting her home is her castle, even if her prince refuses to dig a moat. She has published works in several anthologies and periodicals, along with numerous Bible studies used weekly by more than 10,000 women around the world. You can connect with Rhonda on social media or at rhondadragomir.com.
Conquering Query Letters with Tracy Crump
You’ve written a riveting article or come up with a fascinating idea for a book. You’ve identified which market will be the perfect fit for your writing. Now all you have to do is convince a busy editor who receives thousands of submissions every month to publish your work. Tracy Crump, demonstrates how you can master the art of writing a one-page query letter that will get editors’ attention and persuade them to publish your projects.
Watch the July 13th replay.
Bio
Tracy Crump, author, editor, and speaker has more than a hundred published pieces and leads workshops at writer’s conferences. Her passion for the written word led her to help other writers improve their craft and is co-founder the Write Life Workshops, where she conduct workshops and webinars. You can connect with Tracy on social media or at www.tracycrump.com.
How user-friendly is your website? Could a stranger understand at a glance what kind information you offer and where to find it? Can people easily navigate to what they’re looking for?
How about those with impaired vision? Is your website user-friendly for those with vision challenges, or haven’t you given that issue a thought?
I know I’ve been guilty of that omission in the past. But I recently attended a webinar about this issue and I’m passing on some of what I learned to you.
Tips to make your posts and pages more accessible for users, in particular the vision impaired.
Make sure everything is readable.
We’ve all been frustrated by a badly designed web page that is difficult to read. You don’t want that for your website! Common readability errors include:
Font size too small. Many people find small print difficult to see. Be kind to your readers and make your default font size large enough to read easily. Consider a 14 pt or 16 pt size for body text.
Hard-to-read fonts. Script fonts, handwritten fonts, and ornate fonts are often difficult to read. Save those fonts for invitations and other fancy stuff. Even standard fonts can be challenging when some strokes of letters are very thin. For best readability on a screen, choose a sans serif font like Arial, Lato, or Verdana. (There’s a good reason they’re so popular. They work!)
Insufficient contrast. Low contrast between font and background can make the text difficult to read. If you suspect your contrast isn’t good, you’re probably right. Here is a website that allows you to analyze your contrast. You can enter hex values for the foreground (ie text) and background colors, or just use the sliders to play around. The boxes on the top right indicate whether the contrast passes or fails various standards.
Help users see what you want them to see and do what you want them to do
Createwhite space. When you try to cram too much into the page, it becomes confusing to the reader and they may miss the great content you want them to read. Spread things out so it’s easier for someone to see each important thing you have to say. Break long paragraphs into smaller ones. (Read a long paragraph on a phone and you’ll see why this makes a difference.)
Provide useful subheadings. Subheadings help users navigate through your posts and let them know at a glance what the key points are. Many readers scan the subheadings before deciding whether to read the post. If there aren’t any subheadings, they may move on immediately.
Make it easy to take the next step. After reading the page, what do you want the user to do next? Have you made your call-to-action obvious and simple to use? Can they easily find links to related posts, the comments section, or the search box?
Clarify what clicking a link will do. Don’t assume that every user will understand buttons or links that say vague things like “I’m in!” or “Show me.” Instead, be very clear about what will happen when a user clicks a link or a button.
Design for screen readers
Many vision-impaired users rely on a screen reader to navigate websites. Here are tips to make your site more user-friendly for audience members using a screen reader:
Include alt text on all images. Screen readers can’t interpret images. By filling out the alt text for each image, you can include an explanation of the image for the screen reader to read. This could be a simple description of the image, or an explanation of what the image is intended to illustrate. (Also, many email browsers default to not showing images. In this case, the alt text will show rather than just the “an image goes here” icon.)
Don’t use images when text will work. Since screen readers can’t interpret images, all the data the image provides to those with able vision is lost to those who can’t see it. Screen shots, quote memes, and infographics are examples of images that offer text that is inaccessible to screen reader users.
Don’t open a new window unless it’s necessary. Screen readers get confused when they have to deal with multiple windows. Users may get lost or unable to navigate back to the page they want. To avoid this, don’t set hyperlinks to open in new windows, and if you do, clearly state that in the hyperlink. For example: Click here to open ThisAwesomeWebsite in a new window.
Create helpful hyperlink descriptions. Screen readers read everything literally. If you include the whole web address in a hyperlink, the screen reader will read out every letter and symbol. Who wants to listen to that? Long links aren’t nice to look at anyway, so it’s better to offer readers a clear description of what the hyperlink will do.
Consider color-blindness.
Color can make a certain image pop.
Unless the viewer is colorblind.
There are several different kinds of colorblindness, and each will see an image with varying degrees of impairment. I have listed two sites (below) that show examples of how images might look to colorblind viewers. (In both of them, clicking the various types of colorblindness will change the image) Both sites also allow you to upload your images to see how they would appear.
If differentiating colors is critical for understanding your images, you should use a resource like the one above to ensure your message will still get across. Colorblindness is also a factor to consider for contrast between text and background.
Here are links to two websites that simulate colorblindness:
I hope these tips help you make your website even more awesome! Have other tips to make user-friendly websites? Let me know in the comments.
Lisa E. Betz worked as an engineer, substitute teacher, and play director before becoming an award-winning mystery writer. She brings her analytical mind, quirky humor, and positive outlook to all she writes. She draws inspiration from thirty-five years of leading Bible studies to create entertaining mysteries set in the world of the early church, and then she fills that world with eccentric characters, independent females, and an occasional sausage-snatching cat. Her first novel, Death and a Crocodile, garnered a gold medal in the Illumination Book Awards.
No matter what you do for a living, there is a big chance that you are running a website dedicated to your business. After all, the number of websites keeps growing steadily as there are now more than 1.7 billion sites on the Internet.
Now, every website runs on a content management system (CMS) and WordPress is by far the most popular choice among webmasters of all levels of knowledge and skills. A report reveals that WordPress powers 34% of all websites on the Internet, but the platform’s market share goes as high as 60%.
Users love WordPress because it’s simple and easy to figure out, but they still need to know a few basics in order to keep their sites running smoothly and efficiently. In this post, we will show you nine WordPress performance tips that are suitable for everyday users. Let’s take a look!
Find a Reliable Hosting Provider
Many webmasters make a simple mistake of choosing cheap but unreliable hosting providers. A typical user does it because he/she is not expecting a huge amount of traffic and therefore is not willing to invest in WordPress hosting.
Jake Gardner, an essay writer in charge of IT topics, claims this is a big mistake: “As soon as you create an army of loyal fans, you will notice that your site is slowing down. This is why I recommend you to pick a well-known provider such as Page.ly, WP Engine, or Bluehost.”
Pick a Good Theme
A theme is a collection of templates and style sheets used to define the appearance and display of a WordPress powered website. As such, it has an overwhelming impact on website performance because people love to see a beautiful online presentation.
Now, you can find a lot of WordPress themes with “one size fits all” solutions. While it may seem tempting, we encourage you to opt for a specific niche-focused theme. How come? Generic themes are covering all sorts of features – even the ones you don’t really need.
For this reason, you should pick a narrow theme that suits your business needs. If you visit a website such as Best Essays, EssayTyper.com or EssayEdge, you will realize they use the same sort of theme because it gives them only those features academic writing agencies might need.
Choose the Right Plugins
WordPress themes determine the appearance of your site, while plugins help you to make the website better and more efficient. Just like a theme, you should also be smart enough to choose the right tools for your business demands. Generally speaking, almost every website needs plugins to enable search engine optimization, online security, contact forms, email marketing, content creation, and similar.
Remove the Plugins You Don’t Need Anymore
Everyday WordPress users are known for their “set it and forget it” philosophy. This often turns out to be a disastrous habit because hackers take advantage of outdated plugins to attack WordPress websites. If you know that over 50% of WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins, then you understand how important it is to uninstall the tools you’re not using anymore.
Take Advantage of Excerpts on Homepage and Archives
Another thing you can do to make the website more functional is to take advantage of excerpts on the homepage and archives. Namely, WordPress will automatically load and display the entire content on a given page, which is a surefire way to degrade website performance.
If you really think that visitors should read the whole thing, then you can leave the function as is. But if you think excerpts are enough, then follow this pattern:
Settings → Reading → For each article in a feed, show Summary
Minimize the Size of Images
Visual content is always burdening WordPress websites, so you should consider minimizing the size of your images. Photos that are too big will make the site slower, which is a big deal in the world where almost 60% of visitors leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
The easiest solution is to use lighter images and avoid gigantic files. Another option is to install a plugin such as Smush Image Compression and Optimization to make visual content go easy on your site.
Split Comments into Pages
When your website becomes very popular, you can expect people to start writing lots of comments all over the place. While this is a sign of professional success, it can also jeopardize performance because comment loading increases the overall speed of your website. If you want to prevent this problem, go to Settings once again:
Settings → Discussion → Break comments into pages
Optimize a WordPress Database
As you keep creating new posts and adding fresh content to the website, you can expect WordPress to get slower gradually. In such circumstances, you should not hesitate to optimize a WordPress database because that’s where all the information is stored.
You can do it manually through settings, but a much simpler solution is to install a WP Sweep plugin. This tool will help you to get rid of many redundant features in these (and many other) segments of the site:
Auto drafts
Deleted comments
Revisions
Orphaned user meta
Transient options
Unapproved comments
Unused terms
Keep Your System Up To Date
Do you know that almost 40% of hacked WordPress websites were using an outdated version of the platform? This means that webmasters who neglect updates are likely to suffer from malicious attacks.
The only logical response to the threat is to keep your WordPress system up to date. Every time you see there’s a new version available, take your time to upgrade and solidify both the performance and security of your website.
Conclusion
WordPress is responsible for the functioning of more than a third of all websites currently available online. Users appreciate the platform because it’s super-easy to figure out, but some of them are still not able to identify the most important functions of the CMS.
In this article, we analyzed nine WordPress performance tips suitable for everyday users. Remember our tips and make sure to leave a comment if you need additional explanations – we would be glad to help you out!
Evelyn Mann has been blogging for eight years, with over
1 million hits sharing her experience as a special needs mom of a miracle boy who
was born with a rare form of dwarfism.
I started blogging after going to a writer’s conference.
Encouraged by the feedback, I set out to follow the offered advice. Before
searching out a web designer, I had to determine what I wanted to write. What
was my passion? What would readers want to read and enjoy?
Your Blogging Topic
What is your passion? For me, it’s writing. Since I could
remember, I wrote in a journal. I joined my high school newspaper and published
three travel articles in the local newspaper. Now, fast forward several
decades, my love for writing had turned into a first draft sharing the story of
my son’s miraculous survival from a rare form of dwarfism.
After coming home from my second writer’s conference, I decided
to create a blog about raising a miracle. Next step, find a web designer to
take the technical work out of creating a home for my blog. After many
suggestions and searching, I found a young and upcoming website designer who
would hold my hand throughout the process.
Web Designer
We met on a sunny Florida day in my home office. With a pad
of paper in his hand, Pavel asked me questions about my book, what I wanted to
achieve and then turned to discussions of color and layout. With those
questions answered, we talked about pricing and shook hands. That was the start
of a beautiful business relationship, one that has served me well over the
years.
In today’s tech-savvy world, you could design your website
using Wix or a similar site, but choosing to DIY or delegate this rather
daunting task, I leave the design (and the work) to the experts.
For website builders in your area, search Google for website
designers in your area. Another resource is an app called Fiverr. This app
pairs customers with sellers who work from all over the world. When selecting a
seller, note the customer reviews, the location of the seller, seller level,
and response time.
As of this writing, Fiverr’s suggested a Seller who is top-rated,
six years’ experience, a fifteen day turnaround, has over 500 reviews at 4.9
out of 5, located in Pakistan. With prices ranging from $100 to under $400, you
would receive a three to ten-page website depending on the package selected.
Pavel is also available to craft and create a tailor-made website. Click here:Â
My First Blog
After my website went live, it was time to post my first
blog; an introductory blog to share the reason for my passion. On May 23, 2012,
I posted a blog titled Samuel’s Diagnosis. Being new to crafting words
in blog form, I made many newbie mistakes.
No pictures
No Headings
No Outbound/Inbound links
No Call To Action
My Category showed as Uncategorized
I did not know what I didn’t know. But, I accomplished the
goal of getting my blog started. If you’re in the same spot right now, pat
yourself on the back. You can always update an old blog to add the style points
I missed above.
In my second blog, I added an outbound link. Success. But I still didn’t know that doing this would help with my Search Engine Optimization. Now that I’ve been blogging for several years, I look for a natural opportunity to add an outbound link which fits in with my topic.
Surprise, Your Photo’s Are Gone!
I added a plug-in which placed a watermark on all the photos
of my blog. Since I share precious pictures of my son, Samuel, I thought this
to be a great addition. That is until I woke up the morning before being
interviewed on live television only to find all my blog pictures gone! In a
panic, I called Pavel, and he pulled me out of the proverbial frying pan and
fixed everything. Lesson learned.
What else could go wrong? Some of my photos were posting
sideways.
Has this happened to you?
Frustrated, I scoured the internet to find an answer to this
hair pulling problem. I discovered if I uploaded the picture and edited it ever
so slightly, and then re-submitted in WordPress, wah-la, all fixed.
The free resource I use to re-size my photo’s is: picresize.com/
If you’d like an easier solution, you can add a plugin
called Fix Image Rotation in WordPress.org. This app fixes the mis-orientation
images taken using mobile phones which is most of my images.
Marketing Tip
Once my blogs posted, I found a technique to share my heart felt, sweat of my brow words and passion. Posting on social media helped to spread the word and engage new readers. Want to learn how? Read about my secret sauce here.
Over the years I learned through trial and error. And I
still have more to learn as the technical landscape continues to change. My
blogging journey far from over as I continue to share my passion with others.
How about you? Where are you on this journey? Share your thoughts below. I read
each one.
Evelyn Mann is a
mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35
Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview
with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M
views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea,
sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.
Writers Chat, hosted by Jean Wise, Johnnie Alexander, and Bethany Jett, is the show where we talk about all things writing, by writers and for writers!
“Because talking about writing is more fun than actually doing it.”
Why Writers Need a Website with Rhonda Dragomir, Joshua J. Masters, and Matthew Brough
Why do writers need a website? Our fantastic trio can count the reasons. Learn from those who’ve gone before as Rhonda, Josh, and Matt give us the top nine reasons why writers need websites.
Watch the August 14th replay.
Need inspiration for your own website? Find your source from the Show Notes and Live Chat discussion.
Rhonda Dragomir is a graduate of Asbury University with a degree in Social Work, she is also a pastor’s wife and Bible teacher. Rhonda is an award-winning writer, with published works in Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies and Spark magazine.
Joshua J. Masters is a pastor, author, and speaker. He was featured on CBN, HIS Radio, the Light Radio Network, and One Christian Voice. He was also involved in the production of over a dozen films as director, crew member, and a SAG-AFTRA actor. You can connect with Joshua at: www.joshuajmasters.com
Matthew Brough has pastored Canadian congregations in the Presbyterian Church for over 13 years and currently serves Prairie Presbyterian Church in Winnipeg, MB. He has church planted, and worked in youth and young adult ministry for many years. Matthew is the author of a fantasy adventure book series for ages eight and up. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife, Cheryl, and their daughter, Juliet.
Website Wizardry & WordPress with Joshua J. Masters and Rhonda Dragomir
Joshua J. Masters and Rhonda Dragomir return with part 2 of their website series to show us the basics of website planning. Learn about domain names, hosting platforms, SSL certificates, the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, and much more!
Check out the August 21st replay.
For a list of hosting platforms and helpful website tools, go to the Show Notes and Live Chat Links.
Are you familiar with the term “sticky statements”? If like me, it had you scratching your head, perplexed, then you’ve come to the right place. Our very own, Jean Wise, expounds on what sticky statements are, and how they can transform our writing.
Watch the August 28th replay.
For sources to help you with your own sticky statements, see our Show Notes and Live Chat Links.
Jean Wise is a freelance writer, speaker, retreat leader and spiritual director. She is a contributing author of devotions for six compilations published by Barbour, plus the solo author for Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room, an Advent devotion (Barbour Books, 2014). She has published numerous magazine articles in magazines such as the Lutheran, ChristianCommunicator and public health journals.
JOIN US!
Writers Chat is hosted live each Tuesday for an hour starting at 10 AM CT / 11 AM ET on Zoom. Here’s the permanent Zoom room link.
Participants mute their audio and video during the filming, then we open up
the room for anyone who wishes to participate with our guests. The “After Party” is fifteen-minutes of off-the-record sharing and conversation.
Additionally, you can grow your network and add to the conversation by joining our Writers Chat Facebook Group.
One of the cornerstones of your platform is your personal website or blog. Whether professionally designed or a DIY site, your site needs to include these essential features that introduce you to your followers.
1. Your Name
Your name should be visible somewhere in the “top of the fold” of your site, whether in the header or in the sidebar. (“Top of the fold” refers to the upper half of a newspaper, where the most important information is. It’s also the first part of page that’s loaded on your site.) Visitors to your site will become frustrated if they have to go on a “site safari” to find out who you are.
2. Your Photo
A good quality professional headshot should also be in the “top of the fold,” in either your header or your sidebar. It’s helpful if you use the same profile picture across all your social media accounts. It gives you a more uniform, professional social media presence.
3. Your Social Media Links
WordPress and Blogger have a variety of plugins/gadgets that allow you to link to your social media accounts. There are also plugins/gadgets that share those feeds on your page, but be judicious about their use. You want your sidebar to be informative without being cluttered.
4. Follow by Email Option
Give your readers the option of subscribing to your blog. They’ll benefit in that they’ll get updates to your blog in a timely manner. The benefit for you is that you’ll have access to your followers when you want to contact them with information you may not want to post on your website.
Incorporating these simple elements into your site design will allow your readers to scan the page, find your essential information and begin recognizing your brand.
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