WordPress Tips & Tutorials (PLEASE SHARE!)
Happy Holidays! It's time to once again update and share our Huge List of WordPress Tips & Tutorials that we've been curating from various experts and websites over the past year. Be sure to bookmark it, and if you know of any resources that should be added, please let us know in the comments below!

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GETTING STARTED w/ WORDPRESS
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6 Tips On Buying The Perfect Domain Name
Sometimes the hardest part of building your online business can be choosing your domain name. Once you’ve chosen your domain you are attached to it, so it is best to do your research and purchase a domain name you can be confident in. Here are 6 top tips on buying that perfect domain name.
via +Siobhan McMinn: http://gplus.ly/2aMPhof

Everything You Need To Run Your WordPress Website
Search for your perfect domain name and then get started with 34SP.com's fast, secure & managed WordPress Hosting with an easy to use control panel.
Get Started: http://gplus.ly/2bW9hIF

WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com
For those of you who are just getting started with WordPress, this seems to be a main cause of confusion for many who are just starting out.
via +B2C: http://gplus.ly/1V4XHHn

Moving A Site From Blogger To WordPress
If you're wondering how to move your website from Blogger to WordPress, the steps in this article should help you work through the process from beginning to end.
via +Small Business Trends: http://gplus.ly/1QXoRBt

5 Tips To Better Communicate w/ Your Web Developer
Communication is crucial when it comes to ensuring that you and your web developer are on the same page with your website project.
via +Chris Jenkins: http://gplus.ly/2bW8DuL

A Marketer's Guide To Choosing A WordPress Theme
Choosing the right WordPress theme is crucial to your website's success ... and there are a lot of factors to take into consideration. This guide will help you understand some of the things you need to think about and consider.
via +Search Engine People Inc.: http://gplus.ly/1Lwx1hl?

Getting Started w/ WordPress: A Video Tutorial Series
These short tutorials in the first part of this series will help explain and walk you through the basics of getting started, creating posts and pages, choosing and installing a theme, and managing menus.
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNGMjWoi2DY
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwZ3Cvud65s
3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7shyqbsZX4
4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEeRNaWO-X8
5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovAcI0JhpzM
via +John Dietrich

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TROUBLESHOOTING WORDPRESS ERRORS
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Beginner’s Guide To Troubleshooting WordPress Errors
A step-by-step guide to help you troubleshoot common WordPress errors.
via +WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials: http://gplus.ly/2bW9Ima

14 Most Common WordPress Errors & How To Fix Them
While WordPress is really easy to use, there are some common WordPress errors that can make you panic. This article covers 14 of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
via +WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials: http://gplus.ly/2bWaLmm

11 Tips and Techniques for Debugging WordPress
These 11 tips and techniques for debugging WordPress can make the getting started process easier. This is just the tip of the iceberg; but luckily, there are a lot of resources and developer communities just waiting for you to discover!
via +SitePoint: http://gplus.ly/2fEJDJp

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CUSTOMISING WORDPRESS
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How To Create & Customise A Child Theme
Step-by-step guide to setting up, activating, and customising a child theme.
via +Smashing Magazine: http://gplus.ly/1T0m4Yn

How To Create Custom Page Templates
A detailed step-by-step guide to show you how to create custom page templates for WordPress.
via +Smashing Magazine: http://gplus.ly/1ftF28F

How To Create A Material Design WordPress Theme
Part 1: Theme Setup (http://gplus.ly/2bWatvP)
Part 2: Customisation, Colors & Styles (http://gplus.ly/2bWbd44)
Part 3: Sidebars & Polish (http://gplus.ly/2bWb2Wk)
via +Chris Jenkins

The Black Admin Toolbar
How to Add Links to the Toolbar: http://gplus.ly/1DT8uQO
How to Remove the Toolbar: http://gplus.ly/1DT8cJP
How to Disable for all but Admins: http://gplus.ly/1DT9qoh
How to Fix a Missing Toolbar: http://gplus.ly/1DT8Irf

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SECURITY, PERFORMANCE & BACKUPS
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30 Things You Should Do After Installing WordPress
Installing WordPress is the first step, but you should tweak some of the default settings to further optimize the performance and also improve the security of your website.
Read More: http://gplus.ly/14FpxVj

10 Tips To Secure WordPress
Keeping WordPress secure is important in order to ensure that your site isn't compromised, that uptime is maximized, your data is safe, and your site runs as quickly and reliably as possible.
via +SitePoint: http://gplus.ly/1UwCEyk

12 Overlooked Ways To Secure Your WordPress Site
This article provides a good refresher on the basics and then delves into some of the things you have probably overlooked.
via +WPMU DEV: http://gplus.ly/1ISLwta

Keep Your WordPress Site Safe From Hackers
Some good advice that you should be following to keep your WP site safe and secure! Don't be an easy target!
Read More: http://gplus.ly/1I05nl9

Securing Your WordPress Website
Securing your WP website against hackers and DDoS attacks.
via +SitePoint: http://gplus.ly/1U9Vc4t

4,000+ WordPress Plugins Need Updates!
The ability to use PHP 4 style constructors is getting removed from PHP. Without an update, many plugins will eventually no longer work (this is PHP breaking this backward compatibility, not WordPress).
Read More: http://gplus.ly/1UB50Xd

5 Tips To Make Your Website Load Faster
We should all know by now that every extra second it takes for your website to load means higher bounce rates, less page views, etc. Implement these 5 tips to make your website load faster.
via +B2C: http://gplus.ly/1LyrxR9

12 Ways To Speed Up Your WordPress Site
Learn to effectively improve your WordPress site load speed, with twelve of the best approaches that will help improve your performance.
via +SitePoint: http://gplnk.co/22VFMI9

How To Speed Up Your WP Website’s Load Time
19 specific ways to speed up your website's load time on any WordPress driven website. Some of these items will not be options if your web host doesn’t accommodate them, but most of them will be relevant regardless of your web host.
via +Andy Forsberg: http://gplus.ly/1JXDawb

How To Use Google Drive To Backup Your WP Site
It's always a good idea to have your own backup copy of your website. This tutorial shows you how to automatically backup to Google Drive using the UpdraftPlus plugin.
via +Bloggersignal: http://gplus.ly/1OTucnS?

How To Implement Google AMP On Your WordPress Site
While AMP is not a ranking signal, it does indicate to searchers that your website will load fast. Here's how to get that little lightning symbol next to your listing in the search engine results page.
via +Search Engine Watch: http://gplnk.co/2bbQs42

How To Add Google Analytics To AMP Pages In WP
If you have implemented the official AMP plugin for WordPress, you have probably discovered that the plugin strips out the Google Analytics code from all AMP pages. But even though the plugin strips it out, AMP pages will still validate with Google Analytics code, but you need to add it manually. This article will show you how.
via +The SEM Post: http://gplnk.co/1R854Ka

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SEO, TRAFFIC & MONETIZING
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Jumpstart Your SEO When Launching A New Website
Failing to do "pre-launch" SEO and other preparation can result in a "failure to launch" in the search rankings and a long climb to the top. This article offers 7 smart ways to "jumpstart" your SEO and how to implement each one.
via +Search Engine Land: http://gplnk.co/1R1079Q

The 3 'Golden Rules' Of SEO
Did you know that your web hosting company has an impact on your SEO (search engine optimisation) efforts? This article takes a look at the 3 areas where your web host can affect your SEO so you can determine if your web hosting plan is up to par.
Read More: http://gplnk.co/2cXM7jf

Actionable SEO Tips For WordPress
As a WordPress user you will be ably assisted by various SEO related plugins, the most useful and popular of which is WordPress SEO by Yoast; however, there are still manual things you will need to do to improve your SEO.
via +Econsultancy: http://gplus.ly/1OTwHH5

21 Simple SEO Tips You Can Use Right Now
This list compiles a list of actionable, simple WordPress SEO tips you can implement for your blog or business site right now.
via +Tom Rich: http://gplnk.us/2gMx6S3

Make EVERY Page An Awesome Landing Page
This offers ideas to go forth and make EVERY page of your site an awesome landing page.
via +Search Engine Journal: http://gplnk.co/1Sy9I9c

How To Make Money From Your Blog
34SP.com is proud to present this great piece on how to make money from your blog. It was written for us by guest blogger Ms. Kitty Lusby who we met recently at WordCamp Las Vegas. Kitty is an accomplished writer and blogger and shares her expertise frequently online. We hope that it gives you a few new ideas on how to drive additional traffic to your website and how to then earn money from those visitors.
Read More: http://gplus.ly/1Mslnz7

Ecommerce Trends: Winning vs. Almost Winning
This article incorporated a formula to decode the value of search trend data, which can form the cornerstone of any seasonal campaign: PIPR — or Plan, Influence, Peak, Repeat.
via +Search Engine Land: http://gplnk.co/2dxyb20

How To Supercharge Your Website Traffic
With all the resources available to teach you about good SEO habits, guest blogger Ms. Kitty Lusby thought it would be helpful to take a look at all the ways you can boost your blog traffic and increase your web presence without relying too heavily on search engines. Use this guide to generate more traffic on your website with a well-rounded, intelligent marketing strategy.
Read More: http://gplus.ly/2bWgCbl

Preparing Your Site For The Holidays
Another great article by guest blogger Ms. Kitty Lusby to help you plan ahead so you can enjoy an annual boost in seasonal traffic, and reap the benefits.
Read More: http://gplus.ly/2bWgwAk

10 Tips For Reducing The Bounce Rate On Your WP Site
Using Google Analytics you can determine the 'bounce rate' of your site, which is the percentage of users that are actually clicking away from your site after viewing only one page. If you have a high bounce rate on your site, in most cases you will want to reduce it. Here are 10 tips to help.
via +SitePoint: http://gplnk.co/1L6nsq5

How To Conduct An SEO Backlink Analysis
A backlink analysis is the process of taking a look at the incoming links of a particular page or pages on your website and/or those of your competitors, evaluating the link quality, and taking steps to improve your rankings in Search. This article provides links to analysis tools and offers advice on what metrics to look for and how to disavow low-quality or spammy links.
via +Entrepreneur: http://gplnk.co/1nlA1Tc

Mastering E-commerce Product Page Optimization
When products fit into more than one category, many content management systems create a unique URL for each product and category assigned. That means that one product can have more than one valid URL, based on the categories it fits into. This can turn into a major duplicate content problem.
via +Search Engine Journal: http://gplnk.co/2dlsYKz

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EXTENDING WORDPRESS
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Connecting WordPress & Medium
This tutorial takes you through all of the steps required to connect WordPress with Medium so you can syndicate content.
via +Pradeep Singh: http://gplus.ly/1ZJ8SsM

Embedding Facebook Live Videos Into WordPress
This tutorial will show you how to embed Facebook videos and Facebook live videos to your WordPress blog.
via +Pradeep Singh: http://gplus.ly/2bWhtsz

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FOR DEVELOPERS
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Publishing A Plugin To The WP Plugin Directory
Step-by-step instructions on how to add your plugin to WordPress’ central Subversion repository for both Mac and Windows users.
via +SitePoint: http://gplus.ly/1NSsJfk

Turn Any Theme Modification Into A Simple WP Plugin
While using a child theme for customising WordPress websites is a sound practice, there will also be times when you want to reuse code you’ve added to a child theme with a different theme or on a different website. The best way to package code for use with any theme and on any WordPress website is to add the code to a simple plugin. Plugins are easy to copy from one website to another and can be used with any theme. This article shows you how to get started.
via +WPMU DEV: http://gplus.ly/2bWbXWI

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HOSTING
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WordPress Hosting
With over 15 years in the hosting business, 34SP.com know precisely what it takes to provide rock-solid, lightning fast WordPress websites. Our managed WordPress hosting platform was built from the ground up to offer the very best WordPress hosting at the most competitive price in the UK.
Get Started: http://gplus.ly/1U711Qn

Website Hosting
Hosting services from 34SP.com are designed to meet a wide variety of needs for developers, designers & small businesses.
Learn More: http://gplus.ly/2bWd74E

Unlimited Reseller Hosting
With each account hosted on a self-contained Virtual Private Server, 34SP.com's Reseller Hosting is the perfect flexible hosting solution for web designers, small to medium sized companies or the large scale personal users. All of our hosting accounts come with our renowned 365 days a year customer support, in addition to our 30-day money back guarantee.
Learn More: http://gplus.ly/2b3UxqR

WordPress Staging Features
When we released our WordPress Platform earlier this year, we included the ability to create a staging site for each website within your container. We recently launched an update to the staging control panel to provide more control of your staging sites.

New features include:
-Rollback
-Deleting a staging site
-Accessing MySQL admin area
-WordPress Login to staging lab

Learn more about these features: http://gplnk.co/29yDr3f

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MORE TIPS
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Still want more tips?
Here is a big roundup of WordPress Tips & Tutorials via +Smashing Magazine to check out: http://gplus.ly/1Q4e5Dg?

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SHARE YOUR TIPS!
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*We welcome contributions to this list! If you know a good resource or article that should be added, please share a link in the comments below.

*What is your strategy when it comes to blogging?
Here is some advice from our co-founder...
"Take the 80/20 approach to blogging, 80% of your content should be the posts that you know your visitors like. Use the other 20% to experiment with new ideas," says 34SP.com's Daniel Foster. "You’d be surprised by the number of businesses getting this wrong, and if they happen to be one of your competitors you could do well by perfecting this."

#WordPress #WordPressTips #hosting #security #themes #tutorials #seo #plugins #developers

How to Achieve Semantic Content Excellence (http://gplnk.us/2h3mrCF)

This excellent article by +Eric Enge of +Stone Temple Consulting on +Search Engine Land is worthy of a reshare for those who may have missed it.

What is semantic content optimisation? Why do you need it? How can you implement it?

Semantic Content Optimisation is the practice of "tuning" your web pages to satisfy a larger percentage of visitors. Since Google is constantly evaluating the quality of your content and engagement, it makes sense that you should continually strive to improve both.

Eric discusses 7 Steps that can help you improve your content and engagement, including:

1. Decide on the focus of the web page.
Work on the most important pages of your site first and really narrow in on EXACTLY what your page is about and how you can set it apart. "Understanding how you differentiate is a key part of the process because clearly expressed differentiation can drive user engagement with a page."

2. Identify the customer needs the page should satisfy.
Once you know what your focus is and how you are going to differentiate, you need to brainstorm from the customer's perspective and be sure that you are providing the information that the customer will be looking for.

3. Talk to customers and validate your need profile.
In other words, this is not a guessing game. Go out and get the data you need by talking to real people.

Read the rest of Eric's tips: http://gplnk.us/2h3mrCF

#semantic #seo #content #strategy #search

Mastering E-Commerce Product Page Optimisation

When products fit into more than one category, many content management systems create a unique URL for each product and category assigned. That means that one product can have more than one valid URL, based on the categories it fits into. This can turn into a major duplicate content problem.

Additionally, some products come in multiple shapes, sizes, colors, and other variations. Essentially, they are the same product, with a slight difference. But those differences can require their own SKUs. For many systems, every SKU gets its own page and URL, which can make for a lot of URLs.

This article on +Search Engine Journal covers various methods to optimise your products pages for search.

Optimising your product pages can often be the most valuable time spent on marketing and promotion. And the great thing about optimising these pages is that 90% of it can be handled via a template. Instead of having to optimise hundreds or even thousands of individual pages, optimise the product template and the bulk of your work is done!

Read More: http://gplnk.co/2dlsYKz

#ecommerce #ecommercewebsite #seo #search

Happy Christmas! (http://gplnk.co/2hvvUFd)

To all of our friends in the UK, the USA, and all over the world, from all of us here at 34SP.com, we wish you the happiest of holidays! Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Boxing Day, and Happy New Year!

#MerryChristmas #HappyHolidays #HappyNewYear

25 Ideas to Boost Your Conversion Rate

Every business considers their conversion rate a crucial metric to determine growth. Whether you’re an e-commerce site or SAAS company, conversions play a huge role in the performance of your business. However, it’s not always easy to reach your conversion goals, even when you’re attracting a steady flow of traffic.

In this article, you will find 25 conversion rate optimisation ideas to help you convince customers to make a purchase. Read More: http://gplnk.co/29381BT

Do you have any other tips? Share them in the comments below!

Once you get your conversion rate optimised, learn how to Supercharge Your Website Traffic! Guest post by Ms. Kitty Lusby: http://gplnk.co/2hXkRCc

#conversion #optimisation #business #traffic #website

7 Digital Marketing Tips: http://gplnk.co/2gv4IGV

Whether you're an online e-commerce site or a brick and mortar business, these 7 Essential Marketing Tips should be embraced daily in order to succeed in today's digital world!

1. Google Analytics
2. Social Media
3. Lead Generation
4. Device Capable Website
5. CMA
6. Research
7. Language

Once you grasp these concepts you can effectively build your digital marketing strategy! Read in full here: http://gplnk.co/2gv4IGV

#website #socialmedia #strategy #traffic

Happy New Year from all of us at 34SP.com! This year, the countdown will be 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 1... due to the extra leap second. Here's why: http://bit.ly/2hUuGAp

#NewYear #NewYearsEve #HappyNewYear  

WordPress & Google Analytics

A key piece when launching a new website is to be able to track and monitor your stats so you can begin to understand what you are doing right or wrong and then make adjustments as necessary to increase your traffic and/or optimise your site for conversions. While there are several different options available, an estimated 30–50 million websites use Google Analytics.

+WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials has two good tutorials that show you how to install Google Analytics on your WordPress site as well as how to add Google Analytics Event Tracking. We thought these were worth a reshare in case you missed them the first time around.

How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners
Tutorial: http://gplus.ly/1s3MmyH

How to Add Google Analytics Event Tracking in WordPress
Tutorial: http://gplus.ly/1s3MVsd

If you would like to view your stats in your WordPress admin, the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP will do the job. Here's the plugin: http://gplus.ly/1s3MzBP

To set up your own custom dashboards, this tutorial by +Yoast is a great place to get started, and they have a few dashboards you can download as well. Here's the tutorial: http://gplus.ly/1s3OVAL

To exclude WordPress Admin Traffic from Google Analytics, you can create a Google Analytics Custom Filter for your WordPress Admin. This article has steps to set it up: http://gplus.ly/1QVf2h3

While Google Analytics is a powerful tool, many people are missing out on a lot of functionality because they simply don’t know it exists. It's worth taking the time to learn how to use it and how to apply what you've learned towards improving your website.

"Take the 80/20 approach, 80 percent of your content should be the posts that you know your visitors like, and you can use the other 20 percent to experiment with new themes or ideas." says http://34SP.com's Daniel Foster. "You’d be surprised by the number of businesses getting this wrong, and if they happen to be one of your competitors you could do well by perfecting this."

#WordPress #GoogleAnalytics #analytics #stats #blogging

Happy Holidays UK Connect!

Who will be attending this year's firework spectacular? They say this year's display is "set to surpass anything the event has seen before."

"This will be a spectacular end to what has been a spectacular Christmas in Manchester. We are famous for our fireworks display and the New Year’s party is firmly on the calendar of Mancunians, joining the global countdown with the likes of Sydney and New York. Bring your family and friends along to Albert Square on New Year’s eve for the best show in town." – CLLR PAT KARNEY, MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL

#plusonly #NewYearsEve #UK #Manchester

Happy Boxing Day! (http://gplus.ly/2ik9mVD)

Christmas has come and gone, but in some countries, the celebration is far from over. Boxing Day, which always falls on December 26, is observed as an official public holiday in the UK and many European countries, as well as in former British colonies such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa (among others). When Boxing Day falls on a weekend, countries that observe it designate the subsequent Monday as a holiday.

We hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend and wish you an even more wonderful week ahead!

#UK #BoxingDay #holidays

Holiday Hours: http://gplnk.co/2hwQD8T

This year the 34SP.com office closes for the holiday period on Friday 23rd December. Over the holidays we still offer support each and every day, but due to the lower support demands, we operate a reduced staffing load. That way everyone on our team gets to eat a mince pie or three, put their feet up, and get refreshed for the new year. Speaking of which, our office is back to full hours on Tuesday 3rd January 2017.

Over the break our support team is available 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. every day. Most days we operate email and phone support, except bank holidays, where email only support is offered.

Our server watch team is unaffected by the holidays and operates 365/24/7, ensuring that any system failures that occur are identified and responded to around the clock – except maybe with a piece of Christmas pudding in hand!

Happy Holidays!

#UK #hosting #holidays #holidayhours