I've been a longtime user of the free Yoast SEO plugin and I've been starting to utilize more and more of their premium extensions. I'm not alone. Over five million WordPress website owners use Yoast SEO too! But are these users truly helping their SEO? In most cases no, but it's not the plugin's fault. I would estimate that 95% of my SEO or website audit clients have the Yoast SEO plugin installed, but the implementation is far from complete and the actual on-page SEO usage is haphazard ... Read More
WordPress Plugins
WordPress Automation Tools and Tips
When I first started the company seven years ago, I did everything myself and everything was done manually. It wasn't long before I realized I had to find and set up some WordPress automation tools to keep me sane. Over the years I've tried a lot of plugins, SaaS products, and tools. Many have come and gone, but a few good ones have stuck around and I'm very thankful for them. There is a false belief that marketing and selling on the internet is quick and easy. Well it isn't. There are a lot ... Read More
Digging Into Beaver Builder Free vs Pro Options
Last fall I attended a small WordPress conference called CaboPress. While there I met a gentlemen named Robby. I did not know Robby prior to Cabo and honestly I don't even know if I had known of him. I had briefly heard of his product Beaver Builder but I didn't know the man behind the plugin. Since I liked Robby immediately upon meeting him, I made a mental note to try out Beaver Builder upon my arrival back to the states. I hate to admit this, but I never did. Life caught me up and ... Read More
Using Custom Post Types to Power Up Your WordPress Website
This month I had the pleasure of speaking at High Ed Web in Grand Rapids. After my talk I sat in on Daniel Spillers’ presentation where he discussed the University of Arkansas Little Rock’s usage of custom post types. While we have been using custom post types for years, I realized we’re in the minority. Daniel and his presentation reminded me that custom post types are a magical world that most WordPress users have yet to explore. What are Custom Post Types? Custom post types are simply a way ... Read More
WPML Compatible WordPress Themes Have Arrived!
I’m happy to announce that we are currently updating all of our Genesis child themes to be WPML compatible. This means we are bringing more goodness to our international customers. Over the summer we went through the process of collaborating with WPML (The WordPress Multilingual Plugin) on a sample theme. The WPML team installed, tested, and certified one of our existing themes. After this first theme was wrapped up and certified as WPML compatible, we began including these same changes in ... Read More
WordPress Donation Plugin Makes It Easy to Give
WordPress has long been a favorite of non-profit companies. And while there have been many options available for accepting donations on a website, none of been quite as easy to implement as Give – a new WordPress donation plugin. Before the Give plugin was released, most WordPress users would utilize a PayPal donation button, Gravity Forms, or WooCommerce to accept online donations. While all three sound easy enough, they are not quite as simple and focused as using a WordPress plugin focused ... Read More
Get Social With bbPress, BuddyPress, and the Genesis Framework
We've received a lot of inquiries, tweets, and messages on what's coming next in our theme store and after a few month hiatus, I'm happy to report we have a new theme released and ready for usage. Our latest theme, Caroline, is now available and it's full of lots of functional goodness. Instead of integrating our theme into one or two major plugins, we decided we'd go full out crazy and style it to support four very popular plugins. When you purchase Caroline, you'll receive a premium ... Read More
Announcing Genesis Walkthroughs Right Inside Your Dashboard
Did you know Genesis walkthroughs are now available right within your WordPress dashboard? They are and we’re super exciting to share this news with the Genesis community! Whether you’re a Genesis developer or user, this is big news and we’re really happy to be part of this roll out. Let me tell you a little about it and how you can take advantage of all this educational goodness. Last year my friends Ben Fox and Bart Dabek reached out to me about a cool learning tool they were ... Read More
WordPress Accordion and Tabbed Content Can Negatively Affect SEO
Late last year Search Engine Roundtable posted an article about the usage of tabs, accordions, and hidden content in websites. This article was a quick overview of how these design elements will negatively affect SEO within a website. The article seemed to lie under the radar and most people missed it. It’s so far under the radar, I haven’t heard much about it since I read the post in November. I decided this topic needed further discussion because a lot of designers and website owners are ... Read More
Customize a WordPress Theme With Conductor and Make Beautiful Music With Your Website or Blog
Would you like to customize a WordPress theme without having to contact a programmer or agency for assistance? Would you like to tweak the presentation of a blog page on your own and not have to search through CSS or PHP code? Yep, me too and we're not alone. The WordPress community includes a lot of power users like you and me. We want to customize the layout and design of our website or blog, but we don't want to rely on others for help. If you fall within this type of user group, the new ... Read More
Introducing Jessica: A WordPress Store Theme With Lots of Options
We’re happy to announce the release of Jessica, a brand new WordPress store theme that was built for the Genesis Framework. Our theme is pretty, but don't let her beauty mislead you. She is a very powerful theme that is full of great eCommerce options. Jessica is not only beautiful, it's coded in HTML5 and supports schema. The theme comes with options to showcase coupons and freight specials, capture subscribers, and display sizing tables. It is mobile friendly so it will automatically adapt ... Read More
Why FooGallery is My Favorite WordPress Image Gallery Plugin
My friend Adam Warner sent me over his new WordPress image gallery plugin to review last week. Now I would normally ignore such things on vacation, but Adam is pretty cool and his plugin sounded really awesome. So I took a break from my basking in the sun to play with his plugin on a development site. I have to admit that I loved it. In fact, my exact comment to Adam was: It’s a wonderful fit for users who need a lightweight plugin that creates beautiful galleries without the need for ... Read More
Maximizing SEO in WordPress With Yoast
On any given week, I talk a lot about maximizing SEO in WordPress. This discussion takes place with prospects, existing clients, and even fellow WordPress developers. While there are many great tools available, the majority of WordPress users are simply not maximizing SEO in WordPress. In some cases people are simply not sure where to start. In other cases, people have installed an SEO plugin and have forgotten to configure it or to even use it. The sad part of this is optimizing content ... Read More
Friday’s Marketing Roundup: Good Reads for April 4th
Happy Friday! We're back again with a quick update on this week's interesting articles on WordPress, website design, usability, SEO and social media. This week there were some great articles to read and digest, but if you ask me, I think the WordPress podcasts stole the show. It seems everyone is jumping into podcasting and this week there have been some fabulous folks chatting about design, usability, and best practices in WordPress businesses. Podcasts are becoming an important part ... Read More
Friday’s Marketing Roundup: Good Reads for March 14th
Happy Friday! We're back again with a quick update on this week's interesting articles on WordPress, SEO, social media, and usability. It's been a bit of an action packed week, so I have a few more links that normal. The WPwatercooler continued to mix up education and entertainment for online viewers on Monday and two days later Sucuri further educated and protected the world of CMS with an excellent article on recent brute force attacks. On Thursday Carrie Dils launched out a new Genesis ... Read More
Seven WordPress Performance Tips for the Everyday User
I enjoy reading through our contact inquiries because I get to read what every day people find painful about their websites. Some of these comments come in without solicitation while others are given when I specifically ask what they don’t like about their current situation. When the topic of poor website performance comes up, people already know their website is slow. Some people suspect the issue is theme related, some suspect their existing host is a dinosaur, and others simply know their ... Read More
Friday’s Marketing Roundup: Good Reads for January 24th
Last week the world of WordPress was busy talking about acquisitions and funding announcements. This week we were all discussing the bomb Matt Cutts dropped on guest blog posting. Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company. - Matt Cutts on January 20th While I could see ... Read More
Friday’s Marketing Roundup: Good Reads for December 20th
Happy Friday! It seems everyone is settling down the for the holidays and the internet is slowing to a crawl. Before you head off to that holiday event, take a moment and check out our list of interesting blog posts, news and articles. Our content this week includes a variety of articles from best practices to reviews of SEO changes in 2013. I think my favorite posts are those that talk about my beloved WordPress community. Carrie Dils writes a raw post about her year in 2013 and Matt ... Read More
Friday’s Marketing Roundup: Good Reads for November 22nd
Happy Friday! It's that time to review this week's interesting blog posts, news and articles. Our content includes a variety of articles from DMCA notices to design best practices for a website's home page and landing pages. We've also thrown in a video from Matt Cutts and some great goodies on Schema. If you're interested in getting involved in the WordPress community face to face, we've included a list of upcoming WordCamps and the live WordSesh event. So without further ado, the ... Read More
25+ Considerations for Selecting a WordPress eCommerce Solution
Over the last six months we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of inquiries for WordPress eCommerce. I have no idea why, but the trend is something I can no longer ignore. It seems everyone wants to sell online and they want to use WordPress eCommerce. The misperception of WordPress being completely free and easy is enticing more and more people to launch online stores. They tend to believe WordPress can help them make instant cash from selling their products online. WordPress does make ... Read More
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