Can my new site be controlled by our customer-facing staff?  Web communications should be handled by customer service and sales people, using their existing skills plus easy-to-use tools that are now available. Through our build process, we define the tasks and actions you want assigned to your staff, bend WordPress to your needs, document the process and train/support your staff.

How will my new website and social media content tie in with my current processes and routine? New content creation shouldn’t be an overwhelming task. It is smart to tap into what is already being created for other areas of the business, because tweaking it may make much of it useful for your website, social media and email programs. We can show you how to adjust your processes so that your content can be utilized in targeted search engine optimization or to stay connected with your current customers.

How can I target locally?  With the right tool set and processes in place, all you should need to do is provide good content by talking about what you do and who you serve. We can help you localize a website to your area. Hear from our customers.

Does it support a team?  The industry standard tools available today can support you, your team and your approval processes.  Make sure any new site you build is geared toward action and there is not a technical barrier between you and your customers.

Am I stuck with this vendor for the life of the site?  Maintaining code is expensive.  Unless you plan on having a full-time developer or throwing away your site every few years, I suggest utilizing industry standard tools.  We focus on marketing and lead generation. The best tool available for that is WordPress, which is widely supported.  Why choose WordPress?

Will it replace my sales force? Sadly, no.  Just as email and the phone before it, a website and good marketing program will not replace human interaction. It should, however, give you a tool set, the processes and training to utilize the new tools to stay connected with your customers and potential clients on a regular basis.

Does it work on mobile phones?  Your new website should be “responsive”, which means the content automatically adjusts to the monitor and device that is reading it. Most of our starter frameworks are responsive.  Here scan this code to view this page on your phone.

Will it grow with me? It is important to have a system flexible enough to handle your current traffic and the direction your business may go in the future.  Your ongoing marketing efforts should build on what you have done in the past.  If you are constantly throwing away your old site, you are starting over way too often.  Having a system that can grow with you has multiple benefits including avoiding complete retraining of your staff.

What happens when I want a new site? You shouldn’t have to start from scratch every time you want to refresh your approach. Every piece of content you add to your site builds your overall search profile. Erasing this data every 2-4 years is effectively starting your SEO over. Make sure that you will be able to change your site’s design while maintaining the tool set on which your staff is trained and  maintaining your search content. Our processes and tool set allow for this.

Can I or my team easily build landing pages for campaigns? The answer should be yes. You should be given the tools and training to build simple pages and forms.

Is it scale-able?  Make sure the system on which your site is built can handle more traffic.  Our highest visited customers are getting more than five million visits annually. If Ford can run its marketing program on these tools, most of our customers can use them as well. You can start with minimal hosting fees and increase your hosting program as new traffic dictates.  I have never seen increased traffic become a problem.  Having traffic patterns large enough to require larger hosting is a good thing.

Is it portable?  You shouldn’t be tied to one hosting provider. Our sites are easily moved.

How can I measure success?  It is important to discuss your objectives and how they will be measured.  This should be handled in the planning process.  We document your goals and the metrics that will need to be followed.  Each site build includes set up and configuration of Google Analytics to your needs.

Will the vendor do what they say they will? There are really two things to look for. First, is your vendor honest and trustworthy? Second, are there processes in place to define expectations before the build starts? We have built more than 100 sites on this tool set and know the questions to ask to help assure you get what you ask for.

How do I draw new customers through organic searches? Optimize your site AND optimize the process for adding content. SEO is not about a tech guy in the basement fiddling with code. It is about utilizing a tool set to communicate with your customers and prospects. That tool set should be constantly improving and building your search profile with each new piece of content you add.

Does it integrate with social media? Social media is a tool to communicate with your customers. Of course it should work in conjunction with your website. Your website should lead people to your social media, and should streamline the processes for content distribution.

When I get a customer, does it provide tools to stay connected? A website should integrate with your email nurturing/marketing program, and build a database of customers and prospects with whom you can easily communicate on a regular basis. We streamline processes to include SEO, social media and email marketing.

Can it handle the updates I would like to make? This is essential. Our planning process includes defining the types of updates you will be making and the promotional channels into which they should be funneled. Once that process is defined, we build the system around your needs, document the process, train and support your staff.

Will I be able to use it? Your website should be built using industry standard tools that allow for online marketing. That should assure there is a lot of support available. If you can handle your Facebook page or Microsoft Word you should be in good shape with a website that we build for you.

Can it help my business? Your website should be a smart business investment. Our websites are geared to our clients’ goals which typically focus on: keeping what they’ve got, growing what they’ve got and looking for more customers. We set goals in our campaign directives and make sure that the metrics are tracked.  Read how this contractor’s experience went with us.

Will it help me control my online reputation?  The Internet has given the average person a voice and has greatly empowered the consumer.  This same tool set is available to you through your Web and social programs.  It is more important than ever to fill the Internet with positive content about your business.

Will it track advertising? Our clients can.

How much time am I going to have to invest?  This is a wonderful question.  The overall time invested in building a new site depends on the route you take to get your site. You can build a very low-end site on a shoestring budget, then through investment in time get it to a place where it is making you money.  We provide our customers with a better starting position.  You get a site you can control with a lot of the basic functions already optimized.

How much should I spend?  This depends on your commitment to getting your site up to speed.  Over the last couple of years, we have built more than 100 sites on this platform. We have come to understand where most business owners and marketing managers can start on a solid foundation.  Our full planning, build, train and support packages typically start at between 8-12K.

How do I get started with Checkerboard?  Contact Alicia to schedule an appointment to discuss your needs.  We can provide a quick demo, discuss your needs and go through our set of questions so you can leave the meeting with an estimate.

Ars Technica has a good post about the attacks if you are interested in more details.

What Can I Do To Protect My Site?

When activity like this ramps up, it’s a good time to revisit the precautions that can be taken to prevent your WordPress site from being compromised.

Harden your passwords

Make sure you have strong passwords on all of your WordPress accounts. Here are recommendations from WordPress on creating a strong password.

Install a security plugin on your website

As recommended in the Ars Technica article linked above, “Better WP Security” is a good, all-around security plugin to include on your website. This single plugin addresses security on your site from a number of different fronts, as opposed to having to get a plugin to address each of these areas individually.

Delete the default “admin” account

Strong passwords will do much to deter access, but since this particular attack is targeting the default “admin” WordPress account, you can also delete this account for added security. Keep in mind that you still do need an account with administrative privileges, but it doesn’t have to be the default “admin” account. First, create a new account and assign it the “administrator” role (if you don’t already have one). Then, make sure you are logged out of the default “admin” account and log into this new account. Now you can delete the default “admin” user. If you created any posts under this user, you will have to re-assign them to one of the other WordPress users on the site.

Keep WordPress and all plugins up-to-date

While this particular attack does not seem to be targeting code vulnerabilities, it does happen and is worth safeguarding against. Keeping your WordPress installation, themes, frameworks, and plugins up-to-date will keep you safer. Note that depending on the amount and type of customizing done to your website, updating WordPress and plugins may not be a DYI-type of thing. You can contact us to see precisely what is involved with your website.

Be aware

Keep an eye out for odd behavior and let us know if you see something. It can be hard to know what to look for, but be proactive with anything that looks suspicious. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

We Can Help

In theory, these are things that any WordPress administrator can do. However, you may not be comfortable “under the hood” in WordPress, or your site may have customization that prohibits tackling these types of things on your own. That’s where we can help. We spend all day in and around WordPress, so we can take a look at your website and determine the exact steps needed. (And, it’s that much easier if we built your website.) Implementing these measures will typically take anywhere from 1–3 hrs, but if your site has extensive customization or other unique features it may take a bit longer. If you are interested, call us at 612-798-7244, email us at support@checkerboard.com, or fill out the “Getting Started” form on our website and we can give you a better estimate tailored to your situation.

Stay Safe and Secure

WordPress is one more facet of our digital lives that requires “care and feeding” to keep it not only functioning properly, but safe and secure. As scary as it can all sound, know that you can do much to protect yourself from these types of attacks and vulnerabilities. Following these suggestions won’t guarantee absolute 100% protection, but you can know that you’re doing your due diligence to keep your website as safe as can be.

1.  Use real people: Your web site is a place to showcase your customer facing staff.  While the urge may be to use a standardized byline for your company, there are several reasons we suggest setting your contributors up with their own accounts on your site.

• Potential customers connect with people, not organizations
• Using people shows that you are trying to help your target market, not just sell to them
• Quality control – The simple action of placing content under specific authorship induces better quality content
• Simplifies the approval process

2.  Add a photo: Including an author photo in your updates adds to the overall appeal of your blog content, creates authenticity and helps to create a connection with the reader.  With WordPress sites you can easily incorporate your photo through Gravatar – Learn more

3.  Add author bio: A bio is a great place to re-emphasize your corporate messaging and include a way to connect.  This is especially important with your sales and customer service staff.

4.  Google + Authorship:  Google produces author ranking by compiling the content you have been producing.  If you are adding lots of content to your site it is well worth it to start getting credit within Google.  This process claims the content you produce under your name and is quickly becoming a part of how content is indexed at Google.

Additionally, your photo will be included in search engine listings of your posts, increasing your credibility and the click-through rate.  ’

Setting up Google Authorship varies with your site build, but the first step is to have a personal Google Plus account for each author. Once accounts are in place, you will need to set-up authorship with Google. Start here.  There are usually some adjustments necessary in your blog and it takes some time for listings to show up. Use this Google structured data test to assure all the connections are in place.

If you would like any of these features added to your site, contact us about our support plans – email or (612)587-SITE.

These tips are possible on other content management systems, but we eat, sleep and breath WordPress and bending it to our clients business strategies.  (Why WordPress?)  

Yes, our leaders in government want more control over the freest marketplace in history.  The direct connections between individuals that is available through the Internet today largely eliminates much of the need for central planning and it greatly empowers small business and consumers alike.  The businesses that are starting now are the ones which are going to pull us through in the long run.  The lowering of barriers to entry has produced an environment where good companies are rewarded and bad companies are pushed out of the market.  An atmosphere with the most stringent, but crystal clear set of rules for business; take care of your customers.  It is worth defending from a sales tax and the tools provided to government through this bill.

Using blogs, email, and social media businesses can be set-up with a communication tool set only available to the largest of companies a decade ago.  We help businesses everyday plan their communications strategy, provide the infrastructure, procedures and training to execute their plan.  This ability allows business, no matter how niche, to reach millions of potential customers like never before.  Individuals have more capabilities to do what they love and profit from their passion.  Read more about our approach.

The first rule of governing should be: do no harm.  The potential for harm from this bill is too great for the minimal benefits we will gain.

I don’t believe finding new revenue streams or forcing compliance on current ones is the solution to the problems our country faces.  We need to focus government on the things they are supposed to do, get better at them and tighten the scope of their activities.  Then, at least it can be driven by the people.  We also need to stop thinking we can accomplish more with less through government.  There are much more efficient methods available through our voluntary civil society which has also been made stronger through connections now available with online tools.

I would urge you to tell your Senators to stay away from the Internet and say no to the Internet Sales Tax rush.

A: Our approach to building websites is different than other agencies. We start with a solid foundation that enables you and your staff to drive your website as you go. Because things change so fast, it is important to build off this foundation in the direction which best suits your needs at the time.

You control the speed, growth, time investment and web marketing budget. Because of the sites’ capabilities to connect with promotional channels such as social media networks and email marketing, each new piece of content you add to your site can be syndicated to your clients and prospects through the channels they prefer.

Not only are our sites scalable, but our professional staff can scale to your needs. If you need a social media hub, we provide the tool set for you, with the support of our staff to drive your marketing programs to success.

From our core website builds, there are several ways our customers can branch out. We have developed several add-ons to jump start them with the necessities for each area. These can be added at the beginning of the site build or at a later date. Allowing for continual growth.

Interested in learning more about Checkerboard and its product line? Contact support@checkerboard.com for more information.

Q: What is an editorial calendar and why is it important?

A: An editorial calendar is basically a social media content “to do” list. It holds you accountable to dates and concepts that you decide in advance. It also helps keep you on track as you determine how you will share valuable content with your prospects, customers and fans.

One of the greatest social media content challenges is not the actual writing. It’s stuff like brainstorming topics, targeting the right readers, and optimizing posts with the right keywords and calls-to-action. When you work with Checkerboard Strategic Web Development, we can help you get these plans in place!

Checkerboard can work with you to develop a content strategy, so you know you’re focusing your content choices in the right direction. From there, we can create a content schedule that fits your needs and availability. A content strategy and schedule will help you stay organized, monitor your topic balance, and manage your content timing and deadlines.

How in depth you go with an editorial calendar depends on you and your goals, but the more detailed it is the more efficient it can become. So take the next step towards online marketing success – contact Alicia at 612-798-7244 to find out more about creating an editorial calendar!

Q: Why WordPress?

1. Ease of Use: WordPress is very user-friendly and has an intuitive interface. You can add and edit pages, blog posts, media, etc. in a matter of minutes. The editing tool set is familiar and simple, which makes learning it a breeze.

2. Managed From Anywhere: WordPress is browser-based, which means you can log in from any computer with an Internet connection to manage your site.

3. Search Engine Optimization: The code behind WordPress is very clean and simple, making it easy for search engines to read and index the content. In addition, WordPress contains many additional features to fine tune your content for SEO.

4. User-Controlled Management: You have complete control of the content management for your website. No need to contact a web developer to make changes; you can make nearly all of them yourself.

5. Blog Capabilities: Since WordPress was originally created as a blogging platform, blogging capabilities are built in and easy to integrate. Setting up RSS and email subscriptions to your blog is very simple, helping to extend your reach.

6. Scalable: WordPress sites can grow as you grow. You can have hundreds of thousands of pages or blog posts on your site and the site’s performance will not be compromised.

7. Scheduling Options: You can write multiple posts with valuable content and then schedule them to publish on the date and time that you choose. You can manage your site on your time.

8. Social Media Integration: You can automatically syndicate your blog posts to popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Instead of having to post content to each of your social media channels individually, you can publish a post on your website and it can automatically post on your social networks.

9. Engagement: Through the use of blog comments, you can have two-way conversations with your website’s visitors. This encourages engagement and growth.

10. Mobile Friendly: WordPress has many templates that are responsive to mobile viewing. This means visitors can view your website from their computers or their mobile phones and the design and functionality will stay intact.

Checkerboard Strategic Web Development specializes in building custom WordPress websites. We’d love to help you build your WordPress site! Call Alicia at 612-798-7244 to learn more.

Q: What are WordPress Widgets?

A: Widgets are small functional modules that add visual and interactive options and features to your WordPress website. Widgets are typically found in the footer or sidebar of your website. Some of the most common widgets include: post categories, recent posts, tag clouds, search and sign ups. Widgets are designed to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. Widgets make it easy to customize the content of the footer or sidebar.

Widgets require no code experience or expertise. They can be added, removed and rearranged in the WordPress Dashboard. The widgets can be accessed in Dashboard panel under Appearance > Widgets.

Do you have questions about other features of your WordPress website? Are you interested in transferring your website to WordPress to take advantage of the easy-to-use features such as widgets? Contact me at alicia@checkerboard.com!

Q: How do I specify the post summary on the Blog Archive page?

A: Use the Excerpt feature in WordPress.

The area outlined in red below is the post summary on the Blog Archive page. If you would like to adjust the summary, you can alter this text in the Excerpt section of your post editor.

The area outlined in red below is the Excerpt section in your post editor. Simply type in the text and update the post. It’s that easy!

Our clients are constantly telling us how user friendly WordPress is. Interested in learning about the easy-to-use features such as the Excerpt? Contact me at alicia@checkerboard.com to learn more about the WordPress platform and how it can serve you!