Wordpress

briancarr82 · 28-09-2016 3:26pm #1

Hi Guys,

i've been given the job of upgrading my co. website. Looking at using worpdress is this a good choice and is it a powerful tool for a non programmer? Have downloaded wamp and wordpress.org so i can have my own personal version.

Is it possible to develop a powerful but simple website using this and also are the templates etc. decent?

Cheers

daymobrew · 29-09-2016 8:51am

Yes, you can develop a powerful but simple site with WordPress.

The free themes are quite good because they have been reviewed by the strict Theme Review Team.
The biggest source of paid themes is ThemeForest. These are a mixed bunch with some specialist themes and many do-everything (and possibly bloated) themes.

To extend the functionality of WordPress you can install free plugins or paid ones.

briancarr82 · 29-09-2016 9:09am

So would you say it's far more powerful than something like wix?

briancarr82 · 29-09-2016 9:14am

also, i already have my domain name registered as it's live with the old site. Now if i want people to see the site during the development stage can i host the site online during dev? When downloading i downloaded wamp server but that would mean only i can see it on my pc during development

BailMeOut · 29-09-2016 9:27am

briancarr82 wrote: »

So would you say it's far more powerful than something like wix?

much more powerful that wix! Over 25% of all the websites in the world run WordPress which tells you how popular this platform is. Word or warning though, proceed with extreme caution is you plan on hosting yourself as you need to understand how to secure and lock down properly. A poorly architected Wordpress site WILL be hacked unless you know what you are doing.

callaway92 · 29-09-2016 9:37am

I'd never recommend anything other than Wordpress to someone who isn't a complete expert. It really is brilliant.

briancarr82 · 29-09-2016 9:40am

BailMeOut wrote: »

much more powerful that wix! Over 25% of all the websites in the world run WordPress which tells you how popular this platform is. Word or warning though, proceed with extreme caution is you plan on hosting yourself as you need to understand how to secure and lock down properly. A poorly architected Wordpress site WILL be hacked unless you know what you are doing.

Hey, so instead of hosting myself who do you recommend hosting it with? I was only using wamp for development but i would like to show the dev stages to different people so would ideally need it online

BailMeOut · 29-09-2016 10:21am

briancarr82 wrote: »

Hey, so instead of hosting myself who do you recommend hosting it with? I was only using wamp for development but i would like to show the dev stages to different people so would ideally need it online

google for options as there are 1000's!

<MOD EDIT>

From the forum Charter:

11. Discussion or recommendation of web hosting companies, or the packages offered by various web hosts is not permitted on boards.ie owing to a long, long history of these types of threads not working. This is non-negotiable.

</MOD EDIT>

briancarr82 · 29-09-2016 10:28am

BailMeOut wrote: »

google for options as there are 1000's!

Thanks BailMeOut, will look into it. But a question i have is this. My old site is now live and i want it to remain so until the new one is ready. Can i use the current domain for development on one of these hosting providers? Sorry if this seems like a stupid question.

Also has anyone got any good references for developing a site using wordpress, or is hitting youtube and going through tutorials my best option?

callaway92 · 29-09-2016 10:59am

briancarr82 wrote: »

Hey, so instead of hosting myself who do you recommend hosting it with? I was only using wamp for development but i would like to show the dev stages to different people so would ideally need it online

I use <snip>. They pretty much respond within minutes to any queries I have anyway so you should have no problem with them.

callaway92 · 29-09-2016 11:00am

briancarr82 wrote: »

Thanks BailMeOut, will look into it. But a question i have is this. My old site is now live and i want it to remain so until the new one is ready. Can i use the current domain for development on one of these hosting providers? Sorry if this seems like a stupid question.

Also has anyone got any good references for developing a site using wordpress, or is hitting youtube and going through tutorials my best option?

Youtube will give you the basics (which is all you need really). You can mess around with it yourself then offline and if you are happy with what you're doing (different themes/plugins like WooCommerce etc) you can make the live changes.

briancarr82 · 29-09-2016 3:53pm

any advice on choosing a theme, are they all fairly customizable?

BailMeOut · 29-09-2016 4:28pm

briancarr82 wrote: »

any advice on choosing a theme, are they all fairly customizable?

If you buy a theme you can get support who can sometimes help with any customisation which will be via CSS but generally 99% you will keep as default.

Tips would be making sure the theme is mobile responsive and that you can customise for your company's image (colors and logos). Other than that you pick one you like.

Graham · 29-09-2016 4:53pm

briancarr82 wrote: »

any advice on choosing a theme, are they all fairly customizable?

Look for the theme that requires the least amount of customisation possible.
Avoid the 9000-in-1 we can do everything themes.
Avoid the themes with bundles of unnecessary plugins.
Remember, when viewing the demo sites that you will need to replace the content/images with your own content/images. A theme that looks awesome with 7000 stock images and 400 pages is going to look like junk i you only have 5 snapshots and a couple of paragraphs of text.

briancarr82 · 29-09-2016 5:12pm

yes i will try to keep it simple, all pages will be of similar layout anyways. thanks for the input lads appreciate it

callaway92 · 29-09-2016 10:23pm

I wouldn't go buying a theme. Might turn out in the long run that it's not what you were looking for/might be highly buggy.

Get a free theme with a high review rating and maybe isn't too generic.

Graham · 29-09-2016 10:30pm

I'd disagree but each to their own.

Any of the free themes I've looked at are either incredibly basic/amateur looking or they're crippled versions of paid themes.

M.T.D · 30-09-2016 8:58am

You can install WordPress in a folder along side your existing website without affecting it. You can then view and edit it online. yourdomain.com/wordpress/
Then when you are ready you by moving just a few files your WordPress site will display instead of your original site.
Remember to do 301 redirects from your existing pages to the new replacement pages.
Regarding themes the "free" ones in the WordPress repository have to follow all the guidelines to even be there. Many of the paid themes, even if they were free would not qualify.
Although themes with loads of built in functions may look as though make things easier now, they can make changes awkward and create more work in the future. Many of these themes actually embed other peoples plugins sometimes making updates more problematic if the theme developer is slow to update the theme.
With WordPress repository themes the content of your site is independent of the theme, so you can change themes relatively easily. Themes using page "builders" are much more work to change.

briancarr82 · 30-09-2016 11:36am

it's starting to sound more daunting!! i'm looking to avoid any coding really, but i would be technical apart from that. I'm afraid to pick certain themes in case it's too hard to do the things i want with them without coding.

Graham · 30-09-2016 11:48am

briancarr82 wrote: »

it's starting to sound more daunting!! i'm looking to avoid any coding really, but i would be technical apart from that. I'm afraid to pick certain themes in case it's too hard to do the things i want with them without coding.

Assuming you're just building a basic website it's actually not too difficult and shouldn't really need any coding.

Find a hosting company that offers a 1-click WordPress install (check with your existing host).
Find a theme that looks like you'll only need to change images/text (and probably remove a few pages) to suit your purposes.

301 redirects mentioned are only really necessary if your existing site has a good presence in Google and you can always find a freelancer to look after that bit if it puts you off.

briancarr82 · 30-09-2016 11:50am

It's basic in term of what it does, but it has to look well/modern with sliding images etc. i suppose i won't know until i get stuck in

M.T.D · 30-09-2016 12:05pm

If it was your personal site and you wanted to learn about websites, then WordPress can be a good place to start. There are lots of tutorials online, and Google will show answers to almost any query you might have.

If it is a business website and your business gets benefit from it. i.e. visitors to the website then call or buy from you I would suggest you get the website set up for you with the design/theme you want. You also need to consider plugins for security, contact forms, caching and any other functions you require. Site set up and content should always be done with both visitor and search engines in mind.
The time you spend and the business you could lose while learning "websites" will cost a lot more than getting it done professionally.

Then you can read/watch tutorials about updating and looking after your WordPress site.

briancarr82 · 30-09-2016 12:08pm

this is a fairly large co. we're talking about. We won't be losing any business by me looking at it. I know the previous designer used wordpress for the old site, which is why i said oh sure maybe i can give that a go myself. i dunno maybe i'm as well off pay someone to do it

Graham · 30-09-2016 12:08pm

Or setup the new site on a subdomain while you practice/learn. Something like http://dev.mycompanydomain.com.

If the site is business critical, has a lot of current usage and/or good positioning in Google then paying a professional is probably a good idea.

digitalnative · 06-07-2018 2:15pm

Hi
I would appreciate some help re a WordPress matter.
have registered my client’s WordPress website with Google Search console. I did this 5 weeks ago.

However, when I go searching for site using the company description DA Fitting or dafitting, only the LinkedIn and Facebook profiles show.

Please see below

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-ab&ei=RV4_W-eRFOXNgAb4pbHABg&q=dafitting&oq=dafitting&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i7i30k1l10.12169.12169.0.12390.1.1.0.0.0.0.69.69.1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.1.69....0.qbv-Z_iwHCI

However, if I type in
Social dafitting

I do see pages on the site
Please see link below
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b&ei=ICI_W67XMcqfgAaR45aACA&q=dafitting+social&oq=dafitting+social&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i22i29i30k1l2.31796.33003.0.33616.7.7.0.0.0.0.93.534.7.7.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.7.529...35i39k1j0i22i30k1j0i22i10i30k1.0.O3LPX5Ur9PA

The Social in question is the title of a widget at the bottom page.

I am using the WordPress theme generatpress.

How can I amend these results to show the company name of my client dafitting and not social on the serps pages

Thanks in advance for your help.

tricky D · 06-07-2018 2:58pm

It's not so much WordPress but your SEO which has alomost zero juice. At the very least use title, meta description and headings, all of which are not in use. You have some headings on some pages but they are not being used well.

Then get your site verified by Google.

Also put in proper contact details preferably with a map and rewrite the About Us in third person.

What's the reason for mashing the email addresses under the bonnet?

chewed · 08-05-2020 9:42am

Sorry to dig up old thread.

I've been asked to update a website (plain HTML/CSS) to WordPress. The lady wants to keep the old site up there until new one is ready, so as little downtime as possible when migrating.

Is there a simple way for me to build the new WordPress site in the background before I replace the old one?

M.T.D · 08-05-2020 10:51am

Put the WordPress installation in a folder. You will be able to access it via domainname.com/foldername/. Then once it is ready copy the .htaccess and index files to the root and add your 301 redirects for the old pages to the htaccess file. If done correctly down time is zero no migration needed.

WordPress can be kept in the folder, it does not affect its functioning and keeps the domain root tidy.
Then tidy up the old html pages, if you want to keep them move to a folder e.g. /oldsite. and / or zip the folder and download. You then have a copy and can delete old files from server.

chewed · 08-05-2020 1:09pm

M.T.D wrote: »

Put the WordPress installation in a folder. You will be able to access it via domainname.com/foldername/. Then once it is ready copy the .htaccess and index files to the root and add your 301 redirects for the old pages to the htaccess file. If done correctly down time is zero no migration needed.

WordPress can be kept in the folder, it does not affect its functioning and keeps the domain root tidy.
Then tidy up the old html pages, if you want to keep them move to a folder e.g. /oldsite. and / or zip the folder and download. You then have a copy and can delete old files from server.

Super..thanks! I was hoping it would be that easy.

Wordpress

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