Have an easy-to-use WordPress website that you don’t know how to use?
Believe it or not, this is common! Often, a web designer will create a WordPress website for you, knowing that updating it and looking after the website is easy… Compared to other systems.
This doesn’t mean that it is really simple. Just easier than it used to be when building in code!
Being left alone to figure things out isn’t always a bad thing. I’m sure no one taught you how to use your Facebook page, but when you make a mistake on your website, it can affect your business! This isn’t usually something that people are comfortable changing without first knowing what they are doing.
But how can you be comfortable knowing what you are doing if you don’t want to do anything for fear of breaking it? This is where some bespoke WordPress training comes in handy!
WordPress is a robust system that allows mistakes to be made and rectified easily, along with a relatively simple interface to create and edit pages, blog posts, menus, portfolios and more.
Learning WordPress with an expert
Sitting with a WordPress expert whilst you learn how to update your site, and the unique aspects of your site can be an invaluable experience and help you learn more about your site in three hours than you could in a month of learning on your own!
Suppose you need a generic WordPress training session or blog post help. In that case, you can always look at the official WordPress.org support pages, which offer lots of help to create the basics of WordPress.
So what kind of things will you learn with a bespoke WordPress training session? Take a look underneath as we will explore some of the aspects covered.
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Creating and updating pages and posts
Need to add some text or an image? Have you seen a spelling mistake that needs fixing ASAP? Looking to add a new blog post? These changes are the fundamental areas you want to concentrate on primarily. Unfortunately, most WordPress websites come bundled with a content and layout editor that is initially not user-friendly. Still, with a little training, you will understand why it is the way it is, what you can do and the ease with which you can make the changes you need.
The most common editors are:
- Gutenberg editor
- Visual Composer
- Elementor
- Fusion Builder
These are all designed to do the same thing but with a different layout and set-up. Not a problem, though. We can show you how to use it in a WordPress training session, and you will fly quickly.
2) Add functionality – such as a shop!
Additional functionality is one of the biggest selling points for WordPress. ‘Additional functionality’ is known as ‘plugins’ in WordPress. The WordPress plugin library offers thousands of free or very low-cost plugins which can transform what you can do on the site.
Want to add products and sell your items?
There is a plugin for that!
Need an appointment booking calendar?
There is a plugin for that too!
Want people to leave a message through the site on a contact form?
There is a plugin for that as well!
We will show you how to find the right plugin for the functionality you need, what you should look for in a plugin, how to know it will be safe, and how to use the new features once installed.
Often a plugin will be the main editing area (such as an e-commerce plugin or event manager). Full training is given on the most important aspects of your site, so these will be covered extensively.
Get a FREE WordPress Site review
If you would like a FREE website review so our WordPress experts can see what is going on with your site, please get in touch and leave your website URL. Then, we will do the rest.
If you want us to perform a bespoke WordPress training session, please get in touch with us with your name, email address and date preference. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
3) Adding and editing menus
An area that confuses many people is the menu system in WordPress. Creating new pages and posts doesn’t automatically create a link in the menu. Many sites have multiple pages for privacy policies, cookie notices, terms and conditions, delivery options, etc. Imagine if all of these were automatically sent to the top navigation bar! It would be chaos.
The menu is a separate entity from the pages. It needs to be set up and assigned to the correct place on the website, dictated by the theme options. We can show you how to do this, where the menus can be placed and any other available options!
4) Theme options
A theme is the cladding of your WordPress website. If WordPress were the framework or scaffolding, the theme would be the pretty cladding that goes on top and controls the look and feel of the website.
The bespoke-ness of each WordPress website is often a result of the theme and the different options and variations available. Many people often need help with theme options. We help you understand the relationship between the theme and the areas that they control.
Each theme is different, but with enough experience, we (as WordPress developers) understand the commonality between different themes. Therefore, we can work out how each theme works and functions to a level that we are happy to show you how to use it.
This major area sets our training apart from the more generic WordPress training. For example, a training session containing 20 people online will likely have 20 different websites with 20 themes.
It would be impossible to teach everyone the ins and outs of the different themes. Instead, with our bespoke training session, we can concentrate wholly on the configuration of your website and theme choice.
5) Backups and updates
Every WordPress website will need three areas updating regularly – WordPress itself, Plugins and Themes. These updates (similar to phone app updates) are for security and functionality updates.
Not updating these will lead to your site being hacked and potentially deleted. However, updating these can cause conflicts between new coding. It is unlikely, but it happens!
If something goes wrong, the answer is to create a backup to restore the site to a ‘safe’ version.
But how? Well, we can show you how to back up and update the different components of your site safely.
If you update the site 100 times and something goes wrong only once, you will know that the time taken to back up those 100 times was worth it, for that one time, there was a code conflict. Our training will show you how to back up your site and restore it if something goes wrong!! What to do if something does go wrong and the best way to prevent it from happening in the first place.
6) SEO
You have a website, and it’s designed well. The pictures and text are all in place, and everything is ready to start selling your products/services. But where is everybody? Having a new website is similar to opening a new shop down a dark alley. It may be the best place in the world, but if nobody knows it is there, nobody will visit! This is where SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) comes in!
We can show you how to signal to Google that you are here and are ready to help people with their inquiries—helping you understand how Google works and the relationship between your website and how Google interprets information will leave you in a much better position to generate more traffic, leading to more enquiries and sales.
7) Analytics & Search Console
Once your site is up and running and attracting visitors, you will want to know the statistics that are getting generated. For example, how many visitors use mobile phones to look at the site? How long are they staying on the site? How many people came from Facebook? Did any leads come from LinkedIn etc.? Google Analytics can show all of this and much more.
Search console is a fantastic, free tool from Google that is often overlooked but can be essential to understand how visitors search for your website. Whilst Google Analytics tells you everything about the visitors when they land on your site, the search console tells you lots of information about your site before people visit. This information includes what search terms people use to find your services, how many times that search term is used, where on Google you appear for that term and lots of other very useful information.
Whilst we do dedicated training on Google Analytics and SEO, covering the basics is essential as it helps you understand how people use and search for your website. In addition, understanding how to use Analytics and Search Consoles helps make better decisions regarding future marketing efforts.
Contact Us
Much of our information can be found online and on our website in the news items. Still, these are more ‘generic, cover everything’ style help posts. Our bespoke training is designed for you on your website, and likely won’t be repeated in the same format again.
If you want to understand more about your website or bring your website marketing in-house, call or message us using the form underneath.
If you want to know how our training is from some of our previous clients, look at the independent Google reviews before getting in touch.
Customer Reviews
Here are some of the reviews our brilliant clients have left for us on Google. Have a read and get in touch with us to start your project.
Phone or drop in. We’d love to talk to you!
We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Call us on 01257 429217 Or fill in the form underneath.
