On Tuesday, August 13th, WordPress expert Matt Medeiros highlighted “Must-Have WordPress Plugins” to the Newport Interactive Marketers audience at the International Yacht Restoration School.
To better understand the difference, Matt explained the relationship between a website, WordPress, and plugins in this analogy:
Website : iPhone
WordPress : iOs software
Plugins : Apps
Before installing, make sure that your web host can support a lot of bandwidth in the long run. Once your web host is set up, do thorough research on any plugins you are considering for your site: read reviews, check the number of installations and the dates of the most recent updates. Staying up to date for safety’s sake avoids malware, site lag, and loss of data.
Free and Premium versions are available. Although free ones are great because they’re “accessible, fast and free,” Matt pointed out that there is a difference between Free and Premium—Premium is better.
Premium plugins have more features, better quality, great support, longer product cycle and higher compatibility. If you get what you pay for, it’s worth paying for premium plugins for contact forms and e-commerce.
Matt Medeiros explains the effectiveness of WordPress plugins
In addition to explaining the basics, Matt also shared his favorite WordPress plugins:
Ultimate Coming Soon Page
Redirection– great for transitioning domain change to WordPress
Yoast– WordPress SEO and Video SEO
BackWPup-Wordpress backup plugin
BackUp Buddy– premium version of BackWPup
Gravity Forms– premium, very powerful; creates contact forms and can create users
W3 Total Cache-“cache-ing” helps server, which ultimately helps drive the bottom line for business
Paid Membership Pro– available in free version and premium version
Responsive WordPress Slider by Soliloquy
WooCommerce– E-commerce plugin, also provides extensions for shipping
bbPress– “be all, end all” discussion platform for WordPress
JetPack-“a single plugin that does a thousand things”; it has its own analytics and has the capability to cache images and speed up load time
WPtouch– premium mobile version of WordPress site
Powerpress– the only one for podcasts
**Can’t find a plugin you want? Matt advises to have a developer create it
In February, website developer Francisco Samuel explained to NIM what we’re doing right, wrong, and what we could be doing better. We learned how to avoid being overcharged on development, domains, and hosting. We also found out the secrets to search engine optimization with quick tips on how to enhance your website without getting cheated out of your money.
#NIMRI attendees learned all about:
Internet Consultants Who are good? What is a good price?
Mobile sites My website on the iPhone, iPad, & other mobile devices
SEO Search engine optimization tactics and strategy
Domains & Hosting Must I pay?
Analytics How to track your traffic
Launch, Maintain, Blog, & Repeat Ways to keep the flow of your site
Franciso Samuel graduated from UMass Dartmouth in 1987 with a BS in Computer Science. He has more than a decade of experience working in software development and project management and over 5 years in internet development and dot-coms. He has been running Abacus Software for 15 years, building websites and technology consulting throughout New England.
Key takeaways
Content is one of the keys to website success, both for search engines and for humans
Blogging helps keep search engines coming back & boosts the likelihood that your site will come up when someone searches
Be wary of proprietary work – something a developer created and others don’t use
Work with someone who works with common coding programs and CMS systems like WordPress or Drupal
Make sure your content is specific and describes what you do
If there’s something you are not familiar with, check Google trends to see how common it is
Attendees’ Tweets
Fantastic clip from Matt Cutts to demonstrate there are still people being “snookered” by SEOs – well-done @FranciscoSamuel #NIMRI
Buyer beware: if it’s too good to be true whether the stock market or #SEO says @FranciscoSamuel citing @mattcutts #NIMRI
Blogging helps keep search engines coming back & boosts likelihood that your site will come up when someone searches @FranciscoSamuel #NIMRI
Wordclouds can be helpful to ensure you are using the words folks looking for you would be using #keywords #NIMRI
Be sure you own your own domain and that you can log in to the account @franciscosamuel #NIMRI
https://newportinteractivemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/FrancisoSamuel.jpg273182Suzanne McDonaldhttps://newportinteractivemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/nim-square.svgSuzanne McDonald2013-02-25 05:58:142018-09-25 19:26:48Know Before Paying for Web Services
NIM Roundup: Ed King Gets NIM Stoked About Google+
Would you fall in love with Google+ if it boosted your business by 75%? Well, photographer Ed King did, and Google+ for Business did just that for 02809 Ed King Photography. King explained at the September 27 NIM event how the social media platform some take for granted is actually one of the best tools you can have in your marketing toolkit.
What makes Google+ a necessary part of the marketer’s toolkit is how much it improves a marketer’s reach. Similar to Facebook, but with added reach, Google+ Business Pages creates friend-circles with live hangouts, resulting in community conversations that have more longevity so your messaging can grow exponentially.
King explained that Google+ sites are indexed faster and your connections affect search results. In fact, when King made G+ a priority in his marketing campaign, he gained more than 2,000 followers!
With 15 years experience in business-to-business sales, marketing and working with clients such as Partners Healthcare & Brigham and Women’s Hospital, former chapter president of East Bay B.N.I., King became active in social media in 1990 when he worked with AOL and in a content development role for iVillage.
Although Google+ is a little over a year old, it’s gaining serious ground, according to King. It’s a Facebook-heavy world out there, and people grow complacent and think that Facebook is the only network they need but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Getting involved in G+ Circles
Some people feel like they’re talking to themselves in G+ circles because they don’t understand the potential. In fact, live circles can improve the reach of a business easily if you know how to use them. If sites on G+ get indexed faster, and presence is about indexing … then G+ is well worth checking out, and King has the 22,000 new followers to prove it.
“My sales have increased dramatically,” says King. “It has opened doors which would never have existed without it.” An example is an online Google mentorship with a photographer who has worked with National Geographic, which has played a vital role in King’s overall online presence.
King was lucky enough to have five images selected as “Google Plus Photo Extract Photo of the day” this year, which boosted his actual print sales not only for those prints but others in his collections as well.
“I know some will say because it is a visual product that is easily shared but the idea is fresh interesting content, but I have even received feedback from one person who shares my work regularly, who mentioned to me that because of our connection with the shared images it has increased her overall reach.”
King’s Background in Google+
King’s two-year-old fan page slowly grew his fan base – 150 fans in two years – but when he started using Google Plus that number blossomed to a ripe 22,000 followers, plus he has added an additional 300 fans to Facebook in 6 months. His Twitter account was another marketing outlet that was slow to grow, although he said he uses Google+ a bit more. He was able to add several hundred quality contacts in the past few months. [ SUE, this part is unclear to me – does he mean quality contacts through Google+, or quality contacts through Twitter via Google+??? ]
“All of this growth has lead to an increase in revenue and opportunities like my recent shoot on the Tall Ship from New Bedford to Philly which has lead to more revenue,” says King, who was asked to teach an online course through a Google contact and who gave his first three-day workshop in Rhode Island this this past September through another Google contact.
Is Google+ the whole marketing package?
As to whether Google+ is the whole marketing package, King ganders that it’s a strong possibility since he had been working other aspects of social media but until Google+ he never imagined that he could be this successful using social media.
King had some advice for the Newport hospitality industry: “Personally, if I was in the hospitality industry in Newport I would be hosting a weekly or bi-weekly hangout highlighting the area. This may be a slow grow at first but the live stream to Youtube makes this accessible for anyone at anytime they think about searching Newport as an example.”
Hanging out on Google+ takes patience, and good listening skills, suggests King, who took the time to learn how to use the multifaceted tool until he figured out exactly how to make it work for him.
King’s passion for Google+ piqued new interest for NIM marketers, and NIM founder Suzanne McDonald got right to work to put together a Google+ hangout of her own for NIMers who wanted the marketing success Ed King was able to achieve through G+, for 02809!
Take a look at the hot topics trending twitter about the event:
12MeterCharters says, “Write a complete intro in your Google+ business page. No. 1 complaint of users is incomplete intro.”
Sue_DesigEditor says, “Of 100 million active users, @02809Photo is ranked 626 in US but his Google+ has also boosted his other social platforms.”
KevinTVine says, “Listening to @02809photo talk about how Google+ helped bolster his photography business into the stratosphere #NIMRI”
Stay tuned for November NIM event at La Forge Casino Restaurant at 186 Bellevue Avenue. NIM looks forward to seeing you at the next function at La Forge Casino Restaurant at 186 Bellevue Avenue. http://www.laforgerestaurant.com! Easy parking across the street in the CVS parking lot. Don’t forget to register!
https://newportinteractivemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/nim-square.svg00Suzanne McDonaldhttps://newportinteractivemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/nim-square.svgSuzanne McDonald2012-11-25 03:13:372018-09-25 20:02:49NIM Roundup: Ed King Gets NIM Stoked About Google+
SEO guru Eric Enge broke SEO and Social Media down into plain English at NIM’s Aug. 23 event. Stressing an integrative approach using SEO and Social, Enge said the best way to compete in SEO keywords is to be user-centric.
If anyone knows how to boil down complex ideas for an audience, it’s Enge, who is CEO of Stone Temple Consulting, a 25+ person SEO firm with offices in Massachusetts and California. Enge is also a frequent speaker at marketing conferences like SES, PubCon, and SMX.
According to Enge, the job of any website is to be first in that search. So his PowerPoint presentation boiled down complex SEO and Social Media topics so that attendees of all social media aptitudes could learn just how.
Integrating Search and Social Media highlights
Spun or garbage content or cheap tricks to build brand and rank is not the best way to go
Devote the right amount of space to anchor text, key phrases, brand names, and domains
Avoid bad link-building and backlinking practices, e.g. low-cost or paid-for tactics
Eric Enge featured guest speaker at NIM’s Aug. 23 networking and learning event.
Emphasize users in your web content, because they are central to the Google algorithm
Make sure your brand lends itself to your audience (and if it doesn’t, ask yourself what it will take to get there)
Provide diverse, quality content
Title tags play a big role
Meta description influences click-through rate
Learning Google’s Algorithm
Quoting Google Search Quality Group expert Matt Cutts throughout the talk, Enge explained that Google algorithm finds quality, diverse results help solve problems for users.
Enge discussed the impact of Google’s Panda algorithm update, ushered in on Feb. 23, 2011, and the impact of Penguin, which came to the fore April 24, 2012. He discussed the viability of SEO, Social, PR and Real Content integrated together for a masterful integrative marketing plan.
You can build a huge audience even if you’re a small brand, according to Enge, who said 48.8% of the population uses Google+ (that’s 150 million US users) and Google+ creates community circles. But he warned against trying to get too much out of driving FB “likes” and Google+ “+1’s” since these don’t specifically address which part of your content is working. Likes, +1’s and shares aren’t visible to Google. Tweeted links, for example, can help Google discover content faster than Facebook and Google+.
Title Tage, Meta Description & CTR
NIM attendees learned how large a role Title Tags play, how Meta Description can influence click-through rate (CTR), and more specifically, how Bing uses CTR.
“Saying SEO is dead is like saying you 85-year-old grandmother can configure your web server,” Enge explained.
In addition to good content that is user-focused, Enge provided an example of how one guest posting propelled one site from 0 to 100,000 customers using an integrated approach.
In the hierarchy of social media effort, the 1-on-1 meeting is at the top (takes the most effort), then the meeting, then meetups, then blogging, then LinkedIn, Twitter, then Facebook. The bottom line? Make the effort to meet with actual people to build real communities, and that will fuel social media activity that builds your reputation, since that’s what people (users) value most.
Thanks to Eric Enge for speaking in Newport; you can visit his website at www.stonetemple.com, follow him on Twitter @stonetemple, or add him to your Google+: +Eric Enge.
https://newportinteractivemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/nim-square.svg00Suzanne McDonaldhttps://newportinteractivemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/nim-square.svgSuzanne McDonald2012-09-05 19:49:452018-09-25 20:22:22Integrating SEO and Social Media With Google’s Eric Enge
Let’s take a look at our websites and social media from a proven sales perspective.
Does your website put customers off? You think your website describes your company and products or services. You think you’re not “in the way” when they come to your site to learn about you — or via social media Read More
1/26/2012 Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
Annette Tonti, CEO of MoFuse, shared mobile web best practices for publishers and advertisers. NIM attendees learned the difference between a mobile app and a mobile site and how to build effective web content.
Newport Interactive Marketers joined the University of Rhode Island for the URI Social Media Social. The NIM speakers provided insights to students and Newport Interactive Marketers about what an intern can do and how social media can boost a business.
Jamie Palmer, the Senior Practitioner at University Business Consultants LLC, taught NIM attendees how to tactfully articulate the brand. Jamie stressed the importance of telling the story and not selling the story. NIM attendees learned how to engage their audience with messages that would resonate.
Panelists Matt Medeiros of Slocum Studios and Michelle Quillin of New England Multimedia shared their insights on Google+ just as it launched. A general consensus was Google+ was not appropriate for all brands at that time. But for those who are concerned about SEO, it’s worth considering.
Chuck Dennis, Vice President and Senior Consultant for Knowledgence Associates, taught NIM how to infuse social media with customer service to boost engagement and ROI. NIM attendees learned how to interact with customers’ concerns and complaints through social media. Tips for detecting and redirecting what could become a PR debacle were also included.
Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts instructor Jay Murphy showed Newport Interactive Marketers how to maximize Google Analytics to drive ROI. NIM attendees learned how to attract people that will actually buy and how to bring in more buyers and prospects.
NIM was thrilled to have Eric Covino of internationally regarded SEO community SeoBook.com and CreativeSignals.com answer questions on Search Engine Optimization and Google rankings. NIM attendees learned tactics to get search engines to rank their sites number one. Eric gave tips on how marketers can boost their websites in just one week! He also explained how SEO differs for service businesses and local retailers.
Tom Schuyler, Pandemic Labs’ Director of Accounts, shared Facebook best practices and ROI measurement types. NIM attendees gained tools and insights to measure the value of marketing on Facebook. Tom explained how to utilize Facebook analytics to assess weaknesses and opportunities to make brand presence more valuable. Attendees learned the core metrics you can use to determine how much Facebook is doing for your brand/business.
NIM hosted Patrick Hughes and Scott Quillin to share their expert opinions on online video posts. NIM attendees learned why videos are so important to the success of their businesses. The experts explained how to use YouTube and how to start your own brand channel.
Tamara Gruber, the founder of Red Giant Consulting, guided NIM attendees into the mobile marketing world. She explored the difference between mobile apps and mobile sites and how they could optimize their businesses.
Newport Interactive Marketers hosted a panel of social media experts to teach attendees how to optimize social media. Experts shared the best way to connect with customers through social media and discussed the most effective platforms to use.
Newport Interactive Marketers hosted Doug Wilson SEO specialist at Netsense, a Pawtucket-based market leader in outsourced IT, website, and web marketing solutions. NIM attendees received a how-to seminar on search engine optimization insights. Attendees also learned how to boost their Google rankings.
Social Media Answers With Newport Interactive Marketers
NIM hosted nationally known expert Partick O’Malley. Patrick is the former VP of Operations for Northern Light, Google’s former top competitor, and has spoken across the country and nationally. He is an expert on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google. Attendees gained insights to use social media to effectively boost their businesses.
Matthew Mamet of EditMe presented how small businesses and individuals can use a Wiki platform to share information and foster communities. NIM attendees learned how to up their online presence quickly and easily.
Do you know why people buy from you? What about those who don’t?
Find out with Revenue Coach and author Kristin Zhivago at Newport Interactive Marketers on March 1 in Newport, RI.
Revenue Coach Kristin Zhivago is an expert at aligning buyers’ perceptions with sellers’ assumptions. Zhivago has interviewed hundreds of business owners and their customers to determine what attracts people and what makes them come back.
Sellers, Zhivago says, do not know these crucial components: “What you think is important about your business may not be important at all, and what they think is important may be something you never even talk about.”
Her main goal is to help her customers understand the relationship they have with their own clients. And on Thursday March 1, Zhivago will help Newport Interactive Marketers attendees do the same.
“With that knowledge, all of your messaging – everything from your signage to your emails – will be relevant to new customers looking for the same experience,” Zhivago says.
The biggest mistake small businesses and local retailers make: They never find out why someone chose them in the first place – nor why they keep coming back.
“These interviews work best because people talk freely when they are engaged in a private conversation,” she says. Using the information acquired from the interviews, businesses can make relevant changes to attract new clients.
It only takes about seven customer interviews for the business to see profitable trends. These interviews will show the company exactly what customers’ value about their business.
“The differences are sometimes subtle but always significant. Words matter. Sellers always talk to buyers in one kind of language, and buyers talk to other buyers in another kind of language. Until you actually interview your buyers, you won’t know what those exact words and phrases are,” Zhivago warns.
“And your words and phrases will not resonate with potential customers. And, by the way, you won’t get this data from social media discussions, interesting as they are,” she said.
Social Media and the Revenue Coach’s Perspective
In today’s modern age where every company seems to have a social media site, it can be difficult to “stand out” in the crowd.
“The trick, is to be helpful in a relevant way (interviews help with this also – you’ll know what is relevant).”
Zhivago advises companies to set up a content production system and work on it daily, whether it’s creating content from scratch or curating for your audience.
“Social media is the most resource-hungry marketing method ever invented. You can’t be lazy about it.”
Learn what to say to your customers, via social media and offline
https://newportinteractivemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/nim-square.svg00Suzanne McDonaldhttps://newportinteractivemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/nim-square.svgSuzanne McDonald2012-02-27 06:00:362018-09-26 14:38:54Revenue Expert Shares Proven Strategies on How to Increase Sales
