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Thread: 30 Day Challenge To Get Your Business Online

  1. #21
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    It seems the challenge has been taken up anew

  2. #22
    Email problem workshop's Avatar
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    Don Quixote rides again in the relentless pursuit of.............................

  3. #23
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    We have set up a site, baited a hook for the Google spider and thrown our line into the water
    And we now wait.....and wait......and wait
    This is what fishing is all about

    But while we are waiting we need to reflect on what we are doing and why

    Ultimately we want a list of search phrases (key words) that visitors are going to use to find your site
    We want the most obvious (primary key words)
    And we want the not so obvious ones (long tailed key words)
    They are all important
    This process is called key word research
    A service you will pay an expert a lot of money for when you learn how to do it yourself
    It's exhausting, an endless task
    where the tracks you follow fan out, converge and disappear in a swirl of dust.
    (I like that last bit).

  4. #24
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    We are waiting for Google to pick up the title tag on your test page
    We have a list of search phrases and key words which we keep adding to as new combinations come to mind
    We now need to start building the site.

    This we do by building static pages
    And the first page we create is the Contact page
    Someone might very well stumble across your unfinished site and want to contact you.

    Go to your dashboard
    Select Pages in the menu on the left
    Select Add New
    Enter a title - Contact
    Add your contact details to the text box
    Scroll down to All in One SEO
    Enter your area, city, province, country and the name of your business or any combination you consider to be more appropriate

    Click on Publish

    This is how you build your site
    Page by page, day by day, month by month
    You need to seed your key words into the title tags of the pages you create
    Building a word picture and site structure that Google can use

    Don't try and do everything all in one sitting
    This is an ongoing effort and anyone who does happen to find your first clumsy attempt
    Won't give a damn
    They might even stop to ask you how to do it.
    Last edited by workshop; 04-Apr-13 at 12:57 PM.

  5. #25
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    We have set up a title tag for both your test page www.yourdomain.co.za/test
    As well as your contact page www.yourdomain.co.za/contact
    These are known as child or internal pages


    But we still need a title tag for your home page www.yourdomain.co.za
    And it might have been better to have attended to this first
    This is where we place your primary key words

    But it doesn't really matter

    Google is busy and it can take up to three weeks before they pick up and digest what you are doing
    So the chances are that you have time to tidy up before they arrive
    And if you do miss the bus there will be another and then another
    So make a few mistakes, learn from those mistakes
    Everything can and should be edited and changed on an ongoing basis

    But do understand that at the same you do need patience
    And whilst listening to the chatter don't believe everything you hear
    Experiment and explore for yourself, watch, listen and share.

    Go to your dashboard
    Look for Settings at the bottom of the menu on the left
    Select All in One SEO
    (If it's not there ask your installer why not)
    Change plug-in status to Enabled
    And add a Title tag for your home page in the appropriate field

    This should (as far as is possible) look like a page title
    But in practice you want to cram it full of all your primary key words
    You need to be careful to avoid key word stuffing, however

    And there you have the conundrum that will face you for evermore
    There are no rules in this game
    Just guidelines and common sense.

    Ignore Description and Key Words for now
    Scroll down to and click on Update Options
    It's done

    Finally click on the site name top left of your screen, next to the Wordpress logo
    This will take you to your home page
    Point your cursor anywhere in the body of the page
    Right click
    Select View Source
    And you will be confronted with the gobbledy gook that is used to tell the browser what to display
    You are looking for <title>Key words</title>
    It's right near the beginning and that is what Google feeds on, what you need to set up in every page and post you make and what you need to edit and fine tune till you get it 99% right.

  6. #26
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    This is not the sort of advice you are going to get from the professionals
    And at this stage most will be curling at the edges
    But then again, three, four five years ago there were very few professionals who even knew what a targeted back link is
    And to them it was all pretty pictures, eye candy and how much you can afford?

    But that's all wrong.
    If you want to drive a vroom vroom
    You need to know how to steer the confounded thing.

    Forget about branding, no one is looking and if they do so what?
    You are digging the foundations and can worry finishes when you have a roof over your head and a constant stream of visitors.

    The next page you want to create should tell whoever visits your site something about your business
    And you are going to be surprised at how little you know about the business you run
    You are also going to write more than you need to
    But don't agonise over it, get it down, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and all. It can all be changed later.
    And once again don't forget All in One SEO and your title tag
    You are placing another piece to the puzzle.

    That done we are going to change the landing page
    Right now we get presented with the default Hello World post and "Just another Wordpress blog"
    This we want to change to Your Domain

    Go to your dashboard
    Find and select Settings - bottom left in your menu on the left
    Select Reading
    And change Front Page displays to A Static Page
    Choose the page you have just created
    Click on Save Changes.

    Go to Your Domain top left
    Click and view your site and new landing page.

  7. #27
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    Far too many people baulk at publishing an unfinished, incomplete web site.
    They would rather spend R1500 to R15000 to get someone to do it for them and then to forget about it
    Don't. It does not work for any of us
    All that is going to happen is that you will turn around and tell everyone that the internet does nothing and is a waste of money.

    That's not right
    The internet works just fine
    You are the problem!

    All it takes is a bit of spare time.
    Get to know the medium
    What it can do, what it can't do
    Get yourself to the point where you can make informed decisions
    And then start making those decisions.

    This is ninety percent common sense
    And if you lack imagination like I do
    The other ten percent it takes for someone else to make it look good.

  8. #28
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    But if it's look and feel good, that is a must have
    It's easy enough

    Go to your dashboard
    Select Appearance from the menu on the left
    Click on Themes
    Choose a Theme, any theme
    Click on Activate

    Go to Your Domain, top left next to the Word Press logo
    And view your handiwork
    You have just designed (changed the look and feel) on your first site

    It's that simple

    You literally have thousands of designs, thousands of templates to choose from
    Some are good, some are not, some are free, some are not
    But understand that you can come up with something that looks the part
    And we will get to downloading templates all in good time.

    What you need to know now, is that you can, if it is really that important for you.

  9. #29
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    We have created an About Us page, a Contact page and a test page
    We have changed the landing page to the About Us page
    We have primed the pages for Google's spider by setting up key word rich title tags for each page from a list of search phrases we have drawn up

    We now need an Enquiries Form
    To add some functionality to the site we are creating

    Go to Plug-ins on your Dashboard
    Select Installed Plug-ins and look for Fast Secure Contact Form
    (if it's not there ask your installer why not?)
    Once again as with your graphics you have a host of functional options to choose from
    If you want an Enquiry Form or Classifieds or a Shopping Cart you download, plug-in and learn from the mistakes you make
    In this case we are assuming the plug-in is ready and waiting for you
    And all you have to do is to activate it.

    Select Pages then Add New
    Add a title Enquiries
    Add [si-contact-form form='1'] to the body of the form
    Add some key words in the All in One title field. Something that is relevant to your location - possibly your business name and address.
    Click on Publish

    Try it out
    It probably won't work
    But there is a reason for that
    Last edited by workshop; 09-Apr-13 at 06:56 AM.

  10. Thanks given for this post:

    Dave A (09-Apr-13)

  11. #30
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    And the reason is that there is a good chance we haven't looked at the site settings and the mail is going to the wrong address.

    Select Settings from the bottom of the menu on your dashboard
    Go to General
    You can edit the site Title (not to be confused with the title tag)
    Change the tagline from "Just Another Wordpress Blog" to something like Another Very Useful Web Site

    Make sure the email address is good
    You don't want to allow the public to register so skip that
    Change the time zone to UTC+2
    The rest of the settings at your discretion
    Save Changes and test your Enquiry form

    Go to Permalinks
    I use "Post Name"
    Save Changes

    I also use Log In Lock
    To keep the little furry critters out
    But we don't have to worry about that just yet
    As long as you keep your scripts up to date you should be bullet proof.
    Last edited by workshop; 10-Apr-13 at 04:04 PM.

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