WordPress Resources – Web Design Blog – Web Design Team https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog Wed, 15 May 2019 22:01:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 11 WordPress Tutorials to Increase On-Site Engagement https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/wordpress-tutorials-site-engagement/ Fri, 22 Dec 2017 18:51:27 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=772 If you are a WordPress user, you’ll want to tune into this post. We love WordPress, too and we have found that many of our customers like to keep their WordPress format and integrate it into our web server and site design. That’s no problem with that when you deal with our web design team. […]

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If you are a WordPress user, you’ll want to tune into this post. We love WordPress, too and we have found that many of our customers like to keep their WordPress format and integrate it into our web server and site design. That’s no problem with that when you deal with our web design team. Just let them know that you are using WordPress when you sign up for one of our web design packages.

In this post, we offer some excellent WordPress Tutorials that will help you to increase your on-site engagement so that you can promote your jobs that will result in a higher rate of conversion and engagement.

1. Click to Tweet WP Tutorial

If you are a WordPress user who wants to increase your engagement levels with your target audience, you may get some good tips out of this tutorial by KickStart Commerce. This is a short, but content-filled video tutorial and the author shows you how to install a WordPress plugin that will allow you to insert the “click to tweet” function within your WordPress page.

2. Responsive WordPress Tutorial

This video tutorial shows you how to create a responsive WordPress page that will increase your level of engagement by creating a more responsive website with the WordPress platform. The video will take you through all of the steps required to create a better WordPress site so that you can get more engagement on your posts. Keep in mind that this tutorial teaches you how to do it from scratch so you’ll only want to do this if you plan to learn to create your own WP templates or plugins. Also, you will have to go to the WordPress.org site that has the downloadable link rather than the WordPress.com hosted site.

3. Ecommerce website on WordPress

This is a very detailed video tutorial by katrinah.com where she shows you in great detail how to create a new WordPress eCommerce website. There is a lot of detail involved in setting up an eCommerce site so that’s why this video is longer than many you’ll come across. Be prepared to watch for two hours and forty-five minutes if you want to watch this tutorial. But you should get a lot out of it. Remember that building eCommerce capabilities into your WordPress site will significantly increase your level of engagement.

4. How to Track User Engagement for WP

In this tutorial, you’ll find out how to track user engagement for WordPress using Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a helpful and complex tool that allows you to x-ray how your sites, blogs, and other online pages are doing with your target audience. This tutorial will teach you how to track, analyze, and monitor audience behaviors and make the most of your online traffic while boosting engagement. The Google Analytics tool can be focused primarily on engagement if you prefer so that you can target those behaviors that are most likely to result in higher levels of engagement.

5. Creating Better, Faster, and More Optimized WP Sites

In this insightful tutorial, you’ll learn how to create better, faster, and more optimized WP pages. When you increase the quality and speed of your site, you also increase the level of engagement. This informative online tutorial by Smashing Magazine will show you how to do that with tips that will help you to maximize your time and effort in the right places.

6. How to Change a WordPress Theme

This tutorial will show you how to change your WordPress theme or install or reactivate another theme within WordPress. This is an important skill because it enables you to change your theme anytime without a lot of hassles in trying to figure it out. When you find that your page is not getting the level of on-site engagement that it should, try changing your theme to something more exciting. You may be amazed at the level of results you’ll get.

7. Genesis Yearly Template Tutorial

This tutorial shows how you can install a plugin that will allow you to list all posts for the year in a systematic manner. The posts are listed in a grid that displays all of the different featured posts of the year so that they can easily be located. This might appeal to some of your readers who want to go back and find a post on a topic that interested them, and it is a convenience and a service for your customers.

Remember, adding value to your post or your WP system, in general, is going to add value to the customer’s experience and that is what will ultimately result in higher on-site engagement levels.

7. How to Start a Blog Using WordPress

The most common use for WordPress is obvious — which is to start a new website or blog. With more nearly 30% of all websites and blogs on the internet today using WordPress as their CMS to run their sites, we are continuing to see not only more sites rely on WordPress, but also new individuals getting started with a site of their own daily.

Thanks to various how to start a blog guides across the internet and quite similar to the one we see at BlogNinja, it’s extremely easy for anyone to go live with a site of their own, even if they never have before. These simple step-by-step tutorials make the process of registering a domain name, setting up web hosting and installing WordPress a breeze.

9. Mastering WordPress Navigation Menus

This tutorial is more than one tutorial. It is a compilation of 15 more tutorials that will allow you to gain insight into how to master the navigation menus on the WordPress platform. Why is this important for social engagement? Well, remember a little something called the customer journey and web responsiveness and engagement? Well, it will all come together and increase all of these things if you can create a navigation menu that people like. Remember to make it user-friendly and responsive to mobile users as well.

10. Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress

If you want to know how to increase your level of on-site engagement, you need also to take a look at how you are encouraging off-site engagement. Even if your goal is to increase on-site activity among customers, you will want to place share buttons on your site to share your content off-site as well. Why? Because people look for this when they find something they are interested in online and they want to share it on their social media pages. Check out this tutorial by Code Canyon on this topic to learn more.

11. WordPress 101

f you just need to go back to the basics and pick up on anything you missed the first time around, here is a great basic WordPress tutorial for you. You’ll find lots of helpful tips and tricks plus an overall view of what WordPress can do for your site or blog.

Where to put it?

Once you have the knowledge to increase your level of engagement on your WP site and you have built your WP site to your liking, you’ll need to think about where to put it. WordPress is meant to be a standalone platform. However, you can do more.

If you have us build your website at webdesignteam.com, we can incorporate your WP website into our web server quickly and easily at no extra fuss. Just talk to one of our seasoned expert web designers to learn more.

We design custom-made WP and other types of sites professionally and smoothly with the use of our vast array of tools, expert coders, and engineers. You’ll be amazed.

Check us out at webdesignteam.com and get your free quote today.

Hurry! The world can’t wait to see what you have to say.

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10 WordPress Features You Probably Didn’t Know About https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/secret-wordpress-features/ Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:43:20 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=753 WordPress is a handy tool that you can use to create a website or blog that many people use today. Unlike the traditional web servers that only feature a standard web design template or standard features, WordPress offers some “plug-ins” and features that help you to build your site in the way that you want. […]

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WordPress is a handy tool that you can use to create a website or blog that many people use today. Unlike the traditional web servers that only feature a standard web design template or standard features, WordPress offers some “plug-ins” and features that help you to build your site in the way that you want. When you are building a professional website, the more tools you have at your disposal, the better off, you will be.

WordPress has so many features that sometimes it’s hard to know about them all. So, in this post, we’ll take a look at 10 WordPress features you may not know that you may want to use to form your website or blog.

WordPress Hidden Features: Top Secret Clearance Only

1. Show/Hide Items Using the Screen Options Menu– There is a screen option menu that you may or may not have noticed before on WP. What this does is that it allows you to show or hide items on the WordPress admin screen that you are viewing. This feature allows you to control how your admin pages work which gives you more control over the entire WP editing experience.

2. Accessibility Mode for WP Widgets– This feature allows you to have access to your WP widgets without having to drag and drop the items with your mouse. You can activate this unique feature by clicking on the Screen Options button on the Appearance-Widgets choice.

3. Move, Delete, or Add Dashboard Widgets– When you use WordPress, you are automatically directed to the dashboard page when you log in. But you can rearrange the dashboard boxes to make the WP experience more convenient and more comfortable to use. When you click on the Screen Options button, you can hide or show the boxes or drag and drop them to rearrange them the way that you use WordPress.

4. Paste a URL to Create Links in the Visual Editor– If you want to paste a URL in the visual editor, you can do this by using the link editing feature of the visual editor. Instead of using a popup to paste the link, just select the text and press CTRL+V to paste the URL. When you do this, the visual editor will automatically convert it to a relationship.

5. Editing Images in WordPress– WordPress is a great platform for a number of reasons. It allows you to edit images with the WP platform quickly and easily. But what you may not know is that you can do this easier by going to Media-Library and click on any image. In the image edit mode, you can perform some actions including crop, rotate, and resize. You’ll also be able to flip an image in horizontal or vertical directions so you can work with it easier.

6. Preview Themes Before Activation– Have you ever gone into WordPress to try out a different theme, selected the theme and applied it, then decided you don’t want it? Well, no worries. You can use the test theme feature by installing your theme and then going to Appearance-Themes. Once there, you’ll see a live preview of your chosen theme so you can try it out before activating it. Do this by clicking on the Live Preview option, and you’ll see the theme customizer that will show you the new theme in preview mode.

7. Create Posts for Multiple Pages– If you have a longer post that you want to split into multiple pages, add the “next page” tag in your post, and this will allow you to split it into multiple pages of text. This avoids your readers from having to scroll too much, which is a problem with extra long posts. For more information on how to do this, check out the WP main page for help or click this link to a tutorial.

8. Embed Links, Videos, or Multimedia Files– Do you remember when we all went crazy trying to figure out how to embed music, videos, and other media into a web page? Some of us stayed up til 3 am learning code, while others just stole the code from others who had already figured it out. Well, with WP, there is much less hassle. All you have to do is to embed the code from the URL from a supported site such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, or other compatible sites and it will work on WP. You can even post a link from another WP post.

9. Hidden Secret Options Page in WordPress– Did you know that there is a hidden options page for WP blogs? It is hidden because some users need help using this section and it’s easy to mess up the structure of your page with this option. You can access this URL by going to http://example.com/wp-admin/options.php.

10. Markdown and Keyboard Shortcuts: To Compose Faster– If you want to compose posts at a faster pace, you can use keyboard shortcuts to speed up the process. Using Markdown formatting shortcuts allows you to have text converted into HTML quickly and easily. Below are some of the shortcuts you can use to do this.

WordPress shortcuts,

  • Using * or – will start an unordered list.
  • Using 1. or 1) will start an ordered list.
  • Using # will transform into h1. ## for h2, ### for h3 and so on.
  • Using > will transform into a blockquote.

Why Check Out these Hidden Features?

Well, there you have it: 10 WordPress features you may not have known existed. Why is this important? It’s not important unless you are a WordPress user. But if you like WordPress and use it regularly for your website or blog, you’ll want to try these to save time and to make your WP experience better. Go to the WP website to learn more about the special features that are available. Also, you may want to try out some of the WordPress plugins which offer even more flexibility and special features that you can check out.

How to Integrate WordPress with your Current Web Server or Website

How about those who are using WordPress but want to integrate the WP platform within their web server? Not a problem if you call on us. We are webdesignteam.com, and we can integrate your WP themes and websites into our web server. You can have the “best of both worlds” by being able to use the technology that so many people love about WordPress while also having a stunning, professional website created that you will be proud of.

Contact us to learn more, and we’ll schedule a time to talk to you about your web design. We design websites for WordPress users, as well as any other platform. We do special coding, too including Zoomla, HTML, CSS, and more. If you want an awesome professional website, call us. We can help! We look forward to hearing from you.

Visit us today at webdesignteam.com.

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WordPress in 2019: 61 Expert Tips on Where WordPress is Headed https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/wordpress-in-2019/ Fri, 01 Dec 2017 20:20:30 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=755 We all know WordPress is one of the most powerful platforms on the internet today. Not only is it a free CMS platform that powers more than 28% of the sites on the internet today, it’s also completely free to use and allows full customization, without the need to ever touch a line of code. […]

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  • We all know WordPress is one of the most powerful platforms on the internet today. Not only is it a free CMS platform that powers more than 28% of the sites on the internet today, it’s also completely free to use and allows full customization, without the need to ever touch a line of code.
  • In short, WordPress has completely changed the way websites, blogs, and businesses are created on the internet today.

    With all of that in mind, we wanted to reach out to some of the biggest names in the industry and get their thoughts on how WordPress will continue to dominate the online landscape in 2018, and what changes or updates we should all be on the lookout for.

    WordPress in 2019: Expert Tips and Feedback You Need to See

    David Leonhardt

    I’m not sure of anything new that WordPress will do in 2018. It will continue to popularize website maintenance and updates.

    Any business worth its salt will still need to outsource design elements. And if they are smart, they’ll outsource their content creation, too. But more and more small businesses will realize that they don’t need a “webmaster” to update their calendar, add a photo to a gallery or even tweak their page content. They’ll need a programmer only when something goes wrong.

    This isn’t something new, but I believe it is increasing and will continue to do so for several years.

    David Leonhardt – THGMWriters.com

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    Jacob Cass

    WordPress is simply the foundation of your website or blog and you can utilize this powerful platform to bring traffic to your site by creating content that reflects your business goals. With visual builders and the plethora of themes available to customize, you can now create landing pages and marketing websites in record time.

    Jacob Cass – JustCreative.com

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    Take a look at WordPress today and you will see a common thread amongst most users — they are all looking to utilize the ‘out of the box’ ease of use and power that WordPress has to offer. The problem here is that most users only focus on the basics and never move beyond the few plugins or themes that are heavily promoted or recommended. The real value in WordPress comes when you start to implement a customized look and feel to your site, while also focusing on your user engagement and content at the same time. The last step in this process is to really focus on the promotion of your site. You can have the nicest looking WordPress theme and great content, but without the right promotion, your site will be no better than anyone in the mix of the more than 300 million WordPress blogs on the internet today.

    Ninja Blog Master – Blogninja.com

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    Syed Balkhi

    WordPress core team is working on a brand new editor called Gutenberg which will make it even easier for new users to get started and publish their content. It will allow plugins to build deeper integrations with the editor and offer a more pleasant overall user experience.

    Syed Balkhi – WPBeginner.com

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    Andy Sowards

    WordPress really changed the way I look at websites when I first used it way back in 2006. Back then it was “Blogging software”, if you wanted a blog – you got WordPress, it was simple. Not even a year after we started putting up “Blogs” for people – we realized “Oh, wait, this can actually be an entire website!”. For years after that, you heard WordPress Website, even today most websites are just WordPress sites. However recently, and into 2018 and beyond I believe more and more installs of WordPress are going to be more than just websites, they are essentially web apps. You have forums powered by WordPress, specialty sites with lots of custom coding powered by WordPress, why not apps? Why not mobile apps? Why not use WordPress as a framework to power almost anything – that is where we are headed with WordPress. I know I’m not the only one that has felt that my sites, and content, were formed around the capabilities that WordPress had in the past, and in the future I believe we will start to mold WordPress around those ideas (now that we have a grasp on the technology), and not the other way around.

    Andy Sowards – AndySowards.com

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    Being in the web hosting and cloud data storage space, we are seeing a much higher demand for ‘WordPress dedicated’ hosting plans and support from our clients. While the average hosting plan is likely more than enough to power your average WP site, having a higher value and premium WP hosting plan can actually help your site run much faster and smoother — which can also help with search rankings and user experience. At the same time, with so many different components running behind the scenes all of the time on a WordPress-powered site, there is a lot of potential for server overloads and potential slowdowns. We are constantly making sure we not only keep up with the needs of our hosting clients but also WordPress and it’s evolving changes over time as well. This is something every WP-focused web hosting provider and online business should be considering as well.

    Ivan Dimitrov – pCloud.com

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    Rick Ramos

    The Gutenberg project is the biggest change coming in early 2018 to WordPress. Gutenberg is the name for the new WordPress editor and the changes are significant. Some of the biggest changes that I’m excited for i text pasted from Word will get reformatted instantly and be more compatible. I’m also looking forward to the focus on “writing first” and is trying to provide a less distracting environment. Gutenberg feels more modern than the existing editor and is more contextual. Simple tables are much easier to add to your content. Gutenberg is presently in BETA but you can expect it to become part of the native core of WordPress within a year. If you are launching a new website, it might be a good idea to install the beta now to ensure compatibility with the future.

    Rick Ramos – HealthJoy.com

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    Cody McLain

    Even more multimedia integration. As content moves more towards social media, and less from search engine traffic, multimedia tools such as cinemagraphs are becoming an extremely great way to utilize video and imagery with a mobile focus. Unlike a traditional photograph, a cinemagraph has the added factor of motion, whilst a video might take a long time to load on a mobile phone and may not be as easily integrated. Keeping in tune with the 2017 minimalist approach to web design, 2018 might turn into the year of the cinemagraph!

    Cody McLain – SupportNinja.com

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    Rhys Wynne

    I think WordPress in 2018 will be dominated by one thing: Gutenberg. The new WordPress editor is due to drop in the first quarter of 2018, and it has gone through an extremely quick development cycle, it’s ready to go fairly soon. It’s designed to be something similar to how Wix and Squarespace handle content, and could see the end eventually of things like the customiser and widgets as WordPress moves to a content block layout.

    Right now, it’s available to be played with in public beta, so I would recommend everybody to install it and try and break it. It’s coming, and there will be bugs or things that won’t work well. If you can look into it at this stage you may be able to get your changes implemented before release. This is a vital time for the future of WordPress, I strongly recommend you jump on board.

    Rhys Wynne – Winwar Media

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    Marko Saric

    WordPress is just an amazing platform. I am thankful that we can have an open source tool such as WordPress that allows everyone to create their own site online and spread the word to anyone in the whole world. The best way WordPress can continue to help people achieve their goals in 2018 is not by revolutionizing everything about itself but just to continue being focused on what makes it great. And that’s being the easy way to let people publish content online.

    Marko Saric – HowToMakeMyBlog.com

    WordPress should be the main focus point for all businesses and brands on the internet today. For ourselves, we are continually seeing more individuals and brands jump into the world of WordPress, and seeing a lot of success with it. The majority of our site sales and freelance design work is focused towards site owners that are working on the WordPress platform. It’s already a great CMS out of the box, but when you start hiring freelancers to make it even more unique and customized, then you really start to see the power that lies with WordPress and what is possible.

    Joe Daley – Logomyway.com

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    Ryan Biddulph

    Be yourself through live broadcasts. Being yourself resonates strongest with like-minded viewers. This is the most powerful form of targeting because authenticity attracts like-minded viewers who appreciate your delivery. Live video is the wave of the present and the future. In a microwave culture where everybody wants their stuff yesterday, live broadcasts offer a glimpse into the now. Live videos on Facebook, Periscope, and YouTube also make viewers feel like they are part of the production, giving them a voice as they interact with producers in real time. Whether now or in 2018, authentic video producers using live broadcasts to spread the word will always resonate with individuals who appreciate their genuine nature.

    Ryan Biddulph – BloggingFromParadise.com

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    WordPress has completely leveled out the playing field when it comes to content creation, traffic and growing a business on the internet these days. In the past, if you wanted to start an online business, you would need to hire a designer and someone to create content for your site. Now, anyone can go live with a WordPress powered site of their own in just a few minutes. While it’s easy to start a site, it’s also going to take some time and learning to master the art of making money online and building a legitimate business. This is something we are currently working on with many different bloggers and brands — not only helping them with making the right connections, but also allowing them to earn instant revenue in the process. With so many people going live with a WP site of their own, I think we are going to see continued monetization-based services and online learning for these new site owners and audiences.

    Itai Elizur – InboundJunction.com

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    When most people look at WordPress, they think they are instantly going to have a site live and start ranking in the search results right away. While this is somewhat true, the real truth behind all of this is that it’s going to take a lot of work, content, and backlinks to make all of that possible. This is mainly due to all of the competition that is out there on the internet these days. However, there are ways to get an edge with a WordPress site and choosing the right hosting plans. A perfect example of this can be seen with our “WordPress-Focused” hosting plans that are built specifically for site owners that like to use WordPress. Not all web hosting is the same, and as more people start to truly understand how web hosting and WordPress work, I think we will continue to see more WP-focused services going live in 2018.

    Corey Hammond – A2Hosting.com

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    Andrew Lowen

    WordPress has become the “gold standard” of website platforms in 2017, and the trend only looks to continue in the coming years.

    Many self-heralded experts declare, “If you create good content, people will find it,” and millions of WordPress blogs hit the internet every day as a result.

    The problem is that if everyone is creating good content, what will Google use to differentiate the good from the truly great content pieces?

    The answer to this question is why WordPress users will evolve their content creation to a more “Quality over Quantity” content model in 2018 and beyond.

    If you want to get ahead of the curve, create one great piece of content and market it online! Get backlinks and shares with your piece of content, and it will outrank your competition.

    WordPress users are generally naive to this truth today, but as time goes on, you’re going to hear “quality beats quantity when it comes to producing content.”

    Just remember that you heard it here first!

    Andrew Lowen – NextLevelWeb.com

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    Zac JohnsonBuilding a business around WordPress is where I see a lot more attention being spent in 2018. This is really a no-brainer when you look at the recent growth numbers of WordPress. With it being the site platform of choice for more than 27% of the sites on the internet, how could you not focus your efforts on something that so many people are already using?

    I personally started using WordPress back in 2007, and it’s completely changed the way I create websites and content on the internet today. After seeing firsthand how powerful it can actually be, it’s easy for me to preach and build online businesses and services around the same focus.

    Zac Johnson – ZacJohnson.com

    Nathan Shivar

    WordPress now powers more than a 1/3rd of the Internet. For most people, that’s just a piece of trivia. But powering 1/3rd of the Internet means that WordPress is now so big that it shapes not only the way WordPress sites are created – but also how the other 70% of the Internet is created. In any market, if a product achieves a certain level of adoption, then it can use its strength to shape other competitors. Look at the iPhone for an example. In 2018 and beyond, anything that WordPress adopts or does not adopt will define decisions for users of other products. If WordPress makes AMP standard, then other products will either have to adopt AMP – or they will have to defend their reason to not adopt AMP. Same with editor UIs, site networks, security approaches, etc – site and content creators will have to choose features that are either “just like WordPress” or are “not like WordPress because [X]”. Site and content creators will need to carefully define what their actual needs & goals are – rather than choosing off a menu that is defined by WordPress.

    Nathan Shivar – ShivarWeb.com

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    Vipin Nayar

    WordPress has been one of the most preferred website development frameworks so far. It provides an unimaginable flexibility to the designers as well as the users too. Anyone with minimal technical knowledge can actually operate WordPress sites with enhanced ease for the flexibility that it offers.

    The innumerable plugins and the astonishing themes that are part of WordPress is something that makes it the designer’s favorite. In fact, the truth is that there is no limiting WordPress with more and more people preferring it to build their E-commerce websites too.

    In the year 2018, we can expect WordPress to provide further flexibility to development agencies and developers alike, with the interactive templates that they can embed with their WordPress platforms, which will further enable the clients to make or deploy changes without affecting the other parts of the design. Very soon, users will be able to build the sites that they have always dreamt of.

    Vipin Nayar – Acodez

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    Ashley Faulkes

    For me, the biggest trend I see in WordPress as the moment is in drag and drop page builders. They are not only enabling people to create stunning looking websites but also empowering people with little to no web design skills.

    Of course, where there is great power there is also responsibility and we need to make sure people are educated enough to produce the awesome website they had imagined :> Tools are only a means to an end. But the possibilities are now endless, and fast!

    To try to help people with such tools as Thrive Architect, one of the better page builders around, I have been producing a lot of content on my youtube channel you can pop over and check out Madlemmings on Youtube.

    Ashley Faulkes – Madlemmings.com

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    William Harris

    WordPress is the most popular CMS and as such, the majority of content marketers are familiar with how to navigate its tools and functions. This makes it fast and easy for content teams to get up and running quickly so they can spend more time focusing on tactics and less on figuring out the tools.

    William Harris – Elumynt

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    Mike Brown

    If you are reading this and don’t already know WordPress is, in fact, the defacto CMS (Content Management System) in the world and continues to become more widely used by the day. With every new update of WordPress, the CMS becomes more user-friendly. With the upcoming Gutenberg release on the horizon, the WordPress editor is undergoing a major overhaul.

    Apart from the constant updates being made to the core WordPress system, third-party plugin developers continue to create amazing add-ons and enhancements which make building a website with WordPress a possibility for even the most technologically impaired amongst us. I’m now referring specifically to “Visual WordPress Editors” like Thrive Architect, Divi, Elementor, and the like.

    Before about five or six years ago you really needed to employ a designer and developer if you wanted to have a professional looking and functioning website. Today with the advent of visual editors anyone and I really mean just about everyone can with a little practice create top of the line beautiful websites with advanced dynamic functionality.

    I think the days of needing to hire a team of people to create advanced websites is coming to an end. Short of enterprise level sites just about anyone will be able to build a professional website on their own. I think the effects of this are being seen most profoundly within alternative news/journalism sites and with the combination of social media and blogs we sharing world events with millions of people almost instantaneously. I don’t think we truly understand the impact this is having on the power structures in the world but I think it’s accelerating a major shift in our evolution as a global society.

    Mike Brown – The Blogging Buddha

    Tim Bourquin

    WordPress is making the process of connecting with sites owners, bloggers and online businesses a whole lot easier. Something that we are continuing to see is the developement of new services and businesses powered through WordPress plugins. Once a business has created such a plugin to power their business, they pretty much open the doors for being able to work with anyone. For site owners, this is also extremely easy, as they all know how simple it is to install a WordPress plugin and add in any specific account details or command codes. Expect to see more businesses adopting WordPress plugins into their business in 2018.

    Tim Bourquin – Afteroffers.com

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    James Norquay

    I think the way WordPress could change is they could bring Google AMP into the core function this could impact the functionality of sites. That being said, I think it might be an add-on option.

    It would also be good to see WordPress push more video content and potentially integrate platforms such as Canva into the core offering. This could be valuable for users who are looking for images for content quickly and or looking to create basic infographics for posts.

    James Norquay – Prosperity Media

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    Allan Pollett

    WordPress is the number one platform for building websites for a reason it is built for change. With thousands of plugins and themes, WordPress is incredibly flexible and adapts to new players in the web development space. For example, Shopify’s popularity didn’t cause a mass exodus from WordPress because there
    was a plugin that allowed people to maintain their WordPress sites and gain the functionality of Shopify. In the WordPress world we will say, “there is a plugin for that”.

    Another advantage of WordPress has been its portability. Moving from one server to another or doing a complete redesign can be disastrous in other platforms whereas in WordPress it can be as simple as doing an export and import or updating the theme. It is for these reasons that WordPress is the industry leader and will remain so for far into the future, 2018 and beyond.

    Allan Pollett – AllanPollett.com

    Brandon_Johnston_BlogReignEven with the WordPress development market as flooded as it already is, I still think we are going to see more improvements and businesses jump into this space. It’s really a no brainer, especially when you look at how many sites are being powered by WordPress today. This is just going to be a supply and demand issue, and the demand just keeps on rising as more individuals, brands, and businesses continue to focus their efforts on using WordPress to power their sites.

    Brandon Johnston – BlogReign.com

    James McAllister

    WordPress is wonderful because it offers everything that both a beginner and experienced webmaster could ask for – usability, security, features,
    design, and so on. Even features that aren’t native to WordPress can be added through plugins, so it’s clear why more and more websites are utilizing all of the functionality that it offers.

    One of the greatest things I’m excited about is the fact that WordPress is becoming even easier to set up and get going with – many web hosts these days even have WordPress installations that can be done in only a few clicks. This means that anybody can now get their site up and
    running right away, without needing any technical, programming, or design knowledge.

    I believe there are a lot of people out there with wonderful ideas, but hold those ideas back because they feel unable to create a platform
    (such as a blog) to share everything on.

    Just like the first true personal computers made computing available to the masses, WordPress is doing the same sort of thing for webmasters.

    James McAllister – Starlight-Baby.com
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    Lorraine Reguly

    WordPress is constantly making changes and improvements to their platform. My prediction for the future is that they will strive to create plugins that are all-in-one (that can perform many functions), which will make websites more lightweight.
    With the rise of video-making and video usage by consumers, this will incorporate changes to how media is handled by WordPress.
    I also predict that more sites are going to be created with WordPress because of its ease of use. It’s not difficult to learn how to blog on WordPress, it’s easy to create a blog post, and it’s simple to know if a post is good and meets SEO standards (especially if you use the Yoast SEO plugin!).
    All of my sites are created using WordPress, and I have to say that I love this platform very much!
    What’s great is that WordPress also offers a free platform to bloggers who are just starting out and are unsure if they want to invest the money and the time into having their own hosted website.

    Lorraine Reguly – WordingWell.com

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    Sean Ogle

    I think we’ll see more Artificial Intelligence or machine learning moving into the content creation space in 2018. It’s been poised to really jump off in the last year or so. That doesn’t mean I think that machines will be writing all content by the end of the year. But I do think that we’ll see a lot more AI based tools, designs, and plugins out there that can help people with specific tasks. That might mean making content more SEO friendly in a way that also keeps it reader friendly. And we can see more plugins or tools devoted to things like easily creating user generated content, better organizing content, and tracking the content that users respond to. There’s of potential out there for this stuff and I know there are already plugins gaining traction now. I expect that we’ll see a lot more of these in 2018 that everyone will be talking about.

    Sean Ogle – LocationRebel.com

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    Shane Barker

    When it comes to creating a website, there are many guides and tutorials to get it up and running. But creating content for that website, and your social media and other marketing campaigns is an entirely different beast.

    Of the more than 40,000 different plugins for WordPress, there are a few that standout as clear winners for the content creation process in 2018 and beyond:

    • CoSchedule – This comprehensive editorial calendar allows you to not only plan and organize your WordPress and social media content, it also allows you to post, schedule, track, and analyze your content.
    • WP Keyword Suggest – SEO is a key component of any content marketing strategy, and this plugin makes keyword research a lot easier. It suggests up to 250 keywords ideas based on data from the major search engines.
    • Easy Content Templates – Once you have planned your content, and researched keywords, all that’s left to do is create and publish, right? But if you ever find yourself in need of a little extra help, these content templates can make your writing process a lot faster and easier.

    Shane Barker – ShaneBarker.com
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    kristel-staci
    Without a doubt, one area that WordPress is continuing to make groud on, is the world of online shopping and e-commerce. We all know how easy WordPress is for creating content, but not as many site owners or entrepreneurs have explored their options with online payment systems like Stripe and ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce.

    The real benefit here is when you start to use the power of WordPress SEO for not just creating content for your site, but also relevant articles and focus points that can help rank your products and sales pages as well. I think this is one area that will continue to grow and gain interest in 2018.

    Kristel Staci – MarketingInfographics.org

    Anil Agarwal

    WordPress is easy to use and I’ve been using it since I started blogging. Yes, self-hosted WordPress platform costs you some money (from buying domain to hosting it on other hosting services) but it’s worth every penny.

    The best part about using WordPress is that, you can get access to a ton of plugins that can range from content to selling products to SEO. That’s what the fun is all about. Even if you’re a beginner, you’ll find it easy to create content in a better way, thanks to WordPress!

    Anil Agarwal – BloggersPassion.com

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    Andrea Loubier

    WordPress is exactly what we used to build our website and it continues to be one of the easiest platforms to develop your “store front” for businesses across the globe. They are already working in this direction but the more automation and tools that businesses need are made available and easy to implement, the better businesses can grow whether via content SEO and conversion optimization, cleaning up the backend code that tends to get messy over the lifetime of a business and website as many different people are involved as a company restructures and grows. I think WordPress will get better with getting the best content shared easily while also enabling seamless integration with payment gateways, especially in light of cryptocurrencies as a hot emerging form of digital currency and payment methods.

    Andrea Loubier – GetMailBird.com

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    Rafi Chowdhury

    There will be a lot more room for personalization. Social media integration and sharing plugins will become huge. I do also think that many video embedding and sharing plugins for WordPress will become much more popular soon. WordPress might also be seeing more and more plugins which analyze content and rates it on its cohesiveness and readability.

    Rafi Chowdhury – Chowdhurysdigital.com

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    Patrick Coombe

    I love WordPress. Great question. The cool thing about WordPress is that its Post / Page system acts as a great offline publishing system in and of itself. Meaning, you can take your good old time drafting 1, 2, 10, or 100 posts across multiple users at your leisure. Since its all technically “cloud” based (hosted on your domain actually) you can draft your content, text, images etc switch devices and pick up where you left off. Really, there is no need to even use word-processing software etc just use WP!

    Second, WP as a framework is getting more and more capable. WP itself is fast and efficient, its the themes and plugins that make it slow. Projects like “AMP” is enabling WP to position itself to be a leader in the community. As an agency owner I’ll continue to look to WordPress and the community for sites we build for clients and for ourselves. One of my favorite features of WordPress has nothing to do with the framework itself, its the community. I know if something is broke, there are 100’s or 1000’s of other people out there that went through the same thing and can weigh in on multiple different solutions. Thanks for reading everyone! Hit me up on Twitter @pmkoom if you want to connect!

    Patrick Coombe – Elite-strategies.com

    Marcus Miller

    The obvious answer here is that it will get easier. If we look at tools like WIX that have an artificial intelligence site builder we can already get an idea of what the future looks like. My take is that for many smaller businesses the more technical elements of website design will go away to some degree. It will just get easier and easier to create sites using tools like the cloud based WordPress.com. Elements like technical SEO will to a large degree be taken care of without much thinking on the part of the webmaster. And, we will see the focus being more on traditional marketing of the business rather than the technical elements of web design and digital marketing. So in a nutshell, they will make it easier for smaller businesses who need a customisable off-the-shelf solution.

    Marcus Miller – Bowlerhat.co.uk

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    James Reynolds

    Aside from the continual development Automatic are making to WordPress, some of the best developments for content creators come from third parties, developing for WordPress’s open source platform. Here are two:

    Drag and drop themes – A growing number of ‘drag and drop’ theme builders will make blog customisation simpler and put control into the hands of content creators.

    Plugins – Development of plugins like Wordable.io will continue to allow creators to write in the applications they love (example Google Docs) and easily push their content to WordPress.

    James Reynolds – SEOSherpa.com

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    Dennis Yu

    Google and Facebook control the distribution of traffic, whether we like it or not. While you may “own” your website, you are still dependent upon the algorithms to drive traffic to your site, whether you pay or rank for it. That said, both networks have said that site speed is critical to showing up in the search results or feed. And that means in 2018, we have to adopt Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) and Facebook Instant Articles.

    For those that don’t know, this is native caching, where Google or Facebook are pre-caching your website content, so it can load instantly when users click on your stuff in the SERPS or feed. Many foolishly argue we’re losing “control” of our websites by handing our content to Google and Facebook. In fact, the opposite is true. They’re still referencing your website url as the canonical (the source of record) and you get to keep your tracking tags.

    I used to run analytics at Yahoo!, so we can go on and on about what people misunderstand about search engine operations. Guess what, when they present the user with the search results page, it’s cached results from the last time they crawled that url on your site, anyway. So you might as well do whatever you can to play by their rules, make it easy for your content to be discovered/loaded, and give the user a fast experience.

    Dennis Yu – BlitzMetrics.com

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    Jon Tromans

    Content is being democratised. Tools like Canva let us create great images, YouTube lets us publish our video all for free and WordPress is helping everyone to create content on par with professional publications. If you’ve got the talent and the ideas the tools don’t really matter anymore.

    I can see WordPress making our lives a lot easier over the next 12 months. Even going back a year ago I found people still hitting pain points with the editor and media gallery but a lot of these problems have been addressed and its easier than ever to create great content.

    Jon Tromans – Jtid.co.uk

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    John Turner

    If you haven’t heard WordPress is preparing to release a new post building experience called Gutenberg. The new Gutenberg editor will allow you to drag and drop blocks and create a post with images, block quotes, tweets, galleries, etc with ease and require no technical knowledge.

    This is just the first step of what will eventually be a complete page builder for WordPress. Soon you will be able to build pages and posts in WordPress similar to how you would build a website with Wix and SquareSpace.

    The new Gutenberg project would make it super easy to create a new website in WordPress which is kinda of difficult for someone with no WordPress experience at the moment. It will also, in my opinion, far exceed the current website building experiences in the previously mentioned services.

    If you are looking for the best page builder for WordPress right now, I suggest Beaver Builder. There is currently a huge community for this 3rd party page builder and lots of “blocks” you can use to build pages. But the future of WordPress is Gutenberg.

    John Turner – SeedProd.com

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    Aaron Agius

    I’ve been on WordPress for more than a decade, so I believe in 2018, we’ll see continuations of the same trends that have been driving the platform for years. I expect we’ll see new and better plugins that facilitate all aspects of content marketing, along with integrations between other apps and services to make the system as seamless as possible for webmasters.

    Some of that will happen through third-party WordPress developers; other changes will come through new integrations built into tools like Zapier, IFTTT and Autopilot. I don’t think we’re that far off from a future where managing content marketing and other digital campaigns will happen within a single dashboard, rather than requiring marketers to track siloed data across multiple tools.

    Aaron Agius – Louder.Online

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    Mike Martyns

    With a great community of expert developers behind the project, I am sure that WordPress will continue to change and evolve to face the new challenges that the near future is bringing very soon now.

    Google is betting heavily on Artificial Intelligence, Semantic Web and Mobile and Voice Search which will definitely change the search engine landscape in 2018 and how people consume content every day.

    This is where the guys behind WordPress will make it easier for us bloggers and website owners to adapt to these upcoming changes and keep creating quality content that meets the requirements of future technological advances and our users’ and visitors’ (increasingly demanding) expectations.

    Mike Martyns – SoccerGearHQ.com

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    Janice Wald

    Video will continue to trend in 2018 and beyond.

    This is for many reasons:

    1. People no longer have to be in their own videos. The self-conscious and tongue-tied can enter the Video Age (which we are now in) without concern.
    2. Google likes a variety of media on blog posts. Video adds to the variety. Posts don’t just consist of text when a video is included.
    3. Including a video helps our bounce rates. The longer the video, the longer people stay on the blog.
    4. Videos help the visual learners understand information that no longer consists of just text.
    5. Video helps marketers. People trust people they can see and are more likely to buy from the people who do include themselves in their videos. There are other videos where you can just include an audio (again, for the self-conscious types).

    What does all this have to do with WordPress?
    WordPress has the capacity to include media. Click “Add Media.” Click “Insert from URL” and paste the link to your video.

    Janice Wald – MostlyBlogging.com

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    Ken Lyons

    One of the primary advantages of using WordPress is the vast developer community that supports the CMS with a constant stream of new plugins and templates, which makes it so easy to customize and streamline and improve your WordPress-run site, particularly from an SEO content marketing perspective. I’m a big fan of the old standbys like Yoast and WP Rocket, and each time Google dials up the importance of a ranking signal, like mobile responsiveness and page speed for instance, someone creates a new plugin to help make your content SEO friendly. So it’s that active development that really continues to help WordPress and the content published on WordPress platforms evolve and keep pace with Google’s ever-changing algorithms and best practices.

    Ken Lyons – Measured SEM

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    Jan Koch

    The WordPress team and community is working on a huge update for version 5 of WordPress, introducing a completely overhauled editor for posts and pages. It is supposed to simplify creating great-looking blog articles, without touching any code or working with complicated shortcodes.

    I also see page builders like Beaver Builder or Thrive Architect evolve drastically. They make building landing pages, blog layouts, and any other layout quite straightforward – especially for people with no coding experience. While developers usually prefer to not work with page builders, they’re a great option for the majority of WordPress users.

    Next year, we will see a lot more engagement in the WordPress community towards making WordPress more accessible to people. The community and companies are aware of the need to enhance the usability of their WordPress themes and plugins – and thus using WordPress will become easier than ever.

    I hope that besides content creation, security will also become more of a focus for WordPress users. Since it is so widely used, it’s a very attractive target for automated scripts. Having an outdated version of WordPress, a theme, or a plugin is a security risk that – from my experience – gets ignored all too often.

    Having automated updates and backups is essential for most sites that are not heavily customized, and luckily WordPress also has an indicator to measure password strength for user accounts. If WordPress users can get the fundamentals right and keep their site up-to-date, they’ll have a powerful and expandable platform for their content.

    Jan Koch – WP Mastery

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    Peter Sandeen

    It’s hard to see why WordPress would change standards much anymore. There are so many WP users that it seems much more likely that it’s some new CMS-system or another website platform that makes the industry take the next steps.

    WordPress will still be a comparison point for any new system. So, if WP gets faster, other systems need to follow. If it offers some new feature, others will follow. But those changes will almost certainly be small, incremental steps. Any massive changes are much more likely to come from smaller players—not the behemoth of the industry.

    Peter Sandeen – PeterSandeen.com

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    Ben Brausen

    In the coming years, WordPress will continue its dominance as the preferred CMS on the internet, thanks to ongoing focus on quality content creation.

    It’s clear that WordPress is looking to make it easier to create high-quality content, with better writing tools, image tools, and multi-media capabilities to keep up with the visual-heavy consumption of modern web users.

    Search engines have given us tools to allow them to better understand our content, and WordPress will place items like schema and other structured markups into the platform. This will allow Google and others to better serve up our content when it’s relevant to searchers.

    Low quality doesn’t cut it anymore. If you want to be seen on the web, it has to be awesome and visually appealing. With each new release, WordPress makes it easier to create the great content people want to consume. The future looks great for those of us on the WordPress platform.

    Ben Brausen – BenBrausen.com

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    Brett Langlois

    WordPress is still king when it comes to web development. With video and virtual reality becoming more and more popular, moving forward, I expect to see WordPress continue to add new themes and plugins that make it easy for businesses and brands to include these features in their websites. Already there are WordPress themes like Balzac and Inspiro that feature fully responsive video headers, which are great for showcasing video portfolios. There are also plugins like 360-degree Panoramic Viewer that allow you to present artwork and products with full 360-degree responsiveness for that virtual reality experience.

    Today’s consumers are tech-savvy and expect more interactivity from their online experiences. At the same time, it is becoming more and more difficult to make your content stand out from the crowd. Video and VR are great ways to make your business website pop, and WordPress will continue to be at the forefront of this growing trend.

    Brett Langlois – PureSEO.co.nz
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    Fervil Von Tripoli

    Year after year, WordPress sites are being enhanced according to page load speed, ease of use, design, mobile responsiveness, and functionality. Parallel to this, the standard for better websites is also raising its bar.

    WordPress has been one of the easiest platform/CMS to learn by budding web designers and developers. This opens to a lot of doors for starters to develop unique, beautiful and more user-friendly websites and present content in a creative way through their custom web pages. I personally think this is where we are heading.

    Fervil Von Tripoli – FervilVon.com

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    Jon Dykstra

    I’m not a coder or developer so I can only talk about WordPress from a niche website publisher’s perspective. No doubt WordPress will continue to be the most popular CMS and website platform. However, I believe that more and more website publishers will look into and use alternative platforms for specific website features. I started doing this in 2016. I now use 4 cloud-based platforms that provide their own interface and provide very specific functionality on some of my sites. Examples include:

    • Survey and polling software
    • Question and Answer software
    • Business directory software
    • Landing page software

    While I can use WordPress plugins to do all of the above, and I did test many plugins to achieve the various features, I found subscribing to third-party cloud platforms to be much easier and provides a better result. Plugins are great, but they are often not as good as dedicated third-party platforms that specialize in specific functionality. Were WordPress is so great is that all of the above integrates into my WordPress websites so I get the best of both worlds.

    Jon Dykstra – FatStacksBlog.com

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    Nirav Dave

    With the launch of AMP Pages and Google continuous push towards adopting a mobile-first strategy, it would come as no surprise that in 2018 WordPress would likely focus more on developing themes and plugins that meet this criteria.

    User experience is of utmost importance and as such, WordPress would also continue towards improving its performance ensuring that websites that are powered by WordPress enjoy superior speed and loading time.

    Plus, as far as Content is concerned, with the rise of video marketing and virtual reality, WordPress will move on to providing easy-to-use plugins that will help website owners integrate videos and other animated elements seamlessly into their existing WordPress framework.

    Nirav Dave – Capsicum Mediaworks

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    Evgeniy Garkaviy

    I expect WordPress to continue its trailblazing lead in the way we create, publish and distribute contents in 2018. I expect to see close integration of the WordPress platform with video platform and technology, given that video is one of the most popular form of contents these days. WordPress developers are remarkable at responding to, and adapt to changing users demand. I think they will continue to lead in this area in 2018 and beyond.

    Only recently I discovered Divi template and now most of my WordPress site are powered by this theme, for example Violins.info. As you may see the design is quite modern and what is the main important it is very easy to create different versions for desktop and mobile instead of using manual coding.

    As you may see WP leads with a large margin. I want to see deeper integration with the most powerful other tools like email marketing, form builders etc.

    Evgeniy Garkaviy – HopeSpring.org.uk

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    Lindsay Liedke

    I think that WordPress will continue to power the majority of websites across the world and make starting a WordPress blog even easier than ever. I see developers continuing to seek to improve the user experience, build on new and advanced design concepts, and yet continue to serve a very basic need, which is giving people a solid, secure, and easy to use platform for sharing ideas and building businesses.

    I also believe that new features will continue to be added in the form of themes and plugins. Specifically, I see more access to multi-lingual website building and improved services and tools for aiding website owners with membership and eCommerce websites. Plus, I think that on a development level there will be an easier separation between the front and backends of websites for a more seamless site creation process, as well as new features being added to the native WordPress editor for a new improved content creation experience.

    Lindsay Liedke – WPKube.com

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    Hamza Sheikh

    WordPress. WordPress is love. It is already shaping lives of hundred thousand of people around the world. Being a developer and marketer myself, WordPress is everything to me.

    WordPress has already covered an extra mile in providing the best tools to developers and content marketers. Anyone can easily start their business online using WordPress. It reminds me about my first website back in 2007 when installing WordPress alone was a big task but now everything is changed. You can easily install WordPress and run your business with less than 10 plugins and within 10 minutes.

    WordPress is no more just a CMS – it is turned into a beast that can do anything. People are using WordPress in more creative ways than ever.

    Hamza Sheikh – TheDigitalNerds.com

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    Harris Schachter

    WordPress is probably the simplest way to publish content and make a good looking website, and I don’t think that will change anytime soon. I do think there needs to be more oversight when it comes to plugins and security, possibly a better review process for the plugin directory. I do think overall links from comments and pingbacks won’t be worth anything, since they’re largely spam.

    Harris Schachter – OptimizePri.me

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    Nile Flores

    WordPress has progressed to allow the end user to easily create and maintain their own site. With the plan of Gutenberg to be implemented into WordPress, this will make content creation a lot easier.

    Additionally, plugin and theme developers have made it a lot easier to build websites. For example, plugins like Beaver Builder, and themes like Divi, have allowed basic WordPress users to build themes around their content. People can live edit and live design their website!

    I’ve been using WordPress since it began, and it has come really far. I remember when you could only have posts, and the trend, back then, was to build php “skin” or theme, and put the blog area in an iframe. Of course, that’s ancient stuff, and technology has made it possible for WordPress websites to be responsive to most device widths, and even addresses accessibility. All of these things are just going to improve in the future.

    Nile Flores – Blondish.net

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    Swadhin Agrawal

    WordPress is eventually growing and with the Gutenberg update in beta content creation will include a fun ride it seems. The update will add a WYSIWYG editor which can make formatting better while giving you a preview of how that looks on the frontend, right when you are creating the content.

    While this will be no match for the already popular visual builders like thrive architect, they still will give a bare minimum of the same experience to millions of users who wouldn’t want a visual builder yet.

    Swadhin Agrawal – DigitalGYD.com

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    Aaron Lee

    WordPress is like the god-father is websites these days. A vast majority of websites are built on WordPress, whether it’s personal blogs or major magazine. 100% of my websites are built it with too. Do a simple search, and you’ll find over 20% of website on the internet is built on WordPress.

    I don’t think there will be many changes in 2018, I would say it’s safe to say it will increase further. Expect more companies to build their site with it and expect more e-commerce store to build their store with it as well. It’s just too easy and most importantly affordable! No longer will companies need to pay so much and wait several weeks for their website to be completed. Today it takes less than 5 minutes for a basic site to be up and a week for a decent site to be up.

    You can, however, expect more themes and plugins to take your WordPress website even further. That’s guaranteed.

    Aaron Lee – Short of Height

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    Dario Zadro

    Considering that WordPress powers something like 20% of the top websites and owns about 50% of the CMS market share, WP is clearly here to stay. A few years back, they changed their WordPress.com backend with a brand new UI and introduction of REST API.

    With all the built-in core WordPress features, such as image manipulation and user registration, the REST API becomes very powerful. New sites can now be created using other frameworks, such as Vue or React and hook into the API to create dynamic and asynchronous content. PHP is no longer required to run a site with a WP backend.

    As for content, I know WordPress looking to roll out the Gutenberg Editor, which will change the way content is created and edited. It will introduce more power features to manipulate blocks of content. It will be exciting to see the updates to WordPress in 2018 and beyond!

    Dario Zadro – ZadroWeb.com

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    Mandy McEwen

    Web design tools, such as WordPress, have given people equal opportunity to share their thoughts, advice, and promotions with the world. Entrepreneurs aren’t forced to spend a fortune on ads to spread their message anymore; the DIY-nature of WordPress makes it accessible to anyone, and the SEO-friendly features make it possible to rank your site in search engines even if you aren’t an SEO whiz.

    Because of this increasingly equal footing, more and more individuals will be able to leave the traditional 9-5 workplace, start their own venture, and scale their business. And with these new businesses comes more opportunity for collaboration. Guest blogging, interviews, expert roundups, and other collaborative content will become more popular in 2018 and beyond, allowing entrepreneurs to help each other grow and produce higher quality content for their audiences – a win-win.

    Mandy McEwen – Mod Girl Marketing

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    Sean Si

    Ever since the start of WordPress, the way webmasters handled their site’s content was revolutionized for the better through this Content Management System platform for websites. Although WordPress started out as a blogging platform, it has become the world’s leading CMS.

    Some of the reasons why WordPress became the leading CMS for webmasters are:

    • It’s Free
    • It’s Easy to Use
    • It’s Versatile because of it’s theme and plugin offerings
    • It’s Search Engine Friendly
    • It’s Safe and Secure

    I can see WordPress steadily developing in the years to come through the number of volunteers that make it a point to manage, fix, and develop the already outstanding performance WordPress offers to its users. So, when 2018 comes, WordPress will be bigger than it is now. With the steady releases of themes and plugins, there’s no stopping the CMS giant that is WordPress.

    Additionally, with the points I just mentioned, I can also see WordPress increasing the number of its massive user index. It is true that their user index is already massive today, but who’s to say that it won’t become bigger in the following year? We can immediately think about how so many influential websites, people, and brands use WordPress as their primary CMS. So, it’s actually only a matter of time before other webmasters, bloggers, and brands switch to WordPress as their CMS. Don’t you agree?

    Sean Si – SEO Hacker

    WebDesignTeam

    How to Get the Most Use Out of WordPress

    Now that you’ve had the opportunity to read through some of the best ways to start building an online brand or business with WordPress, it’s time for you to start implementing these methods as well. As great as WordPress is, it can still be quite a time-consuming process. With all of the different WordPress plugins and themes options available, it can be tough to decide on which is best for your site and audience. At the same time, if you are trying to create something custom, you will likely need to start playing around with custom graphics and coding on your site.

    If this sounds like something you would like to accomplish, but don’t want to mess around with on your own, we are here for you! Discover the many hidden treasures and benefits that WordPress has to offer, simply by contacting Web Design Team today! We can analyze your existing business model and online presence, while also letting you know how we can help improve your reach and engagement with your audience in the process.

    The post WordPress in 2019: 61 Expert Tips on Where WordPress is Headed appeared first on Web Design Blog - Web Design Team.

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    How to Find Discount Coupons on Web Design and Hosting Services https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/find-discount-coupons-web-services/ Thu, 17 Aug 2017 16:32:38 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=642 Web design and web hosting can be expensive. That’s why it pays to shop around. You need to find the best solution that will help you reach your business goals online. Are you looking for a way to save money on your web services? Web services such as web hosting, web design, and web maintenance […]

    The post How to Find Discount Coupons on Web Design and Hosting Services appeared first on Web Design Blog - Web Design Team.

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    Web design and web hosting can be expensive. That’s why it pays to shop around. You need to find the best solution that will help you reach your business goals online.

    Are you looking for a way to save money on your web services? Web services such as web hosting, web design, and web maintenance are one of the main expenses that eCommerce business owners have to purchase. These costs can be expensive over time, so it’s a good idea to look for ways to lower these expenses when possible.

    You will often find discounts or coupons for web services on the internet when searching for web tools and website design options. But the most important thing is to have a website that is of the highest quality possible while keeping your ROI as high as possible.

    In this post, we’ll look at some ways you can find discounts on web services so you can check them out for yourself and then offer you some options for getting your website looking as great as it can be.

    Retailmenot.com

    The first service we’ll share with you is Retailmenot.com. It is a discount coupon system where you will find some different types of discounts on web hosting and other services. Currently, they have discount coupons running for GoDaddy.com, Name.com, and Digital Ocean, among others. They change out coupons once in awhile to offer a variety of different types of discounts.

    Some of the coupons that you will find on this site are for web hosting, and others are for domain registration and design. Just look through their coupons offerings to see what they offer.

    Web Hosting and Blogging Coupons

    Another discount coupon site that you should check out for discounts on web hosting is blogging.org.

    They have several vendors and partners such as 1&1 web hosting and others that you can get an original deal for pennies on the dollar.

    Keep in mind that the amount you pay for the introductory offer is not your normal price, though. It’s a good way to get a temporary fix for web hosting while you are deciding which one is best for you. If you are wanting to try out different types of web hosting to see which features you like, this may be a good way to do that.

    Other Ways to Save Money on Web Services

    If you just want to save money on web services but don’t want to use coupons, you can search for various web hosting services that offer a reasonable rate all of the time.

    Web hosting services are offered by a variety of different companies including Bluehost.com, Hostgator.com, and iPage.com. The problem with finding a web hosting service that is separate from your web design service is that it may not work together as well as you hoped and you may run into issues with the technical end of things.

    Also, you need to make sure that you have the hosting service that will work with your plans for your website. Keep in mind that, the lower the price for web hosting services, the more likely it may be that it will be limited to what you are getting. For example, you may get a web hosting service for $4 per month, but you may discover that your storage space is limited to 1GB. Many of these services do have ways to increase the amount of space you can get. But it may cost you most than you bargained for.

    Co-location of Services

    In the end, it’s best to locate a web design service that also offers to host your site. This is known as “co-location of services.” When you have your web design and web hosting with the same company, there are many advantages to doing this. Below are some of the advantages of getting all of your web services with one company.

    1. Technical Help– When you have a problem with your website, it can either involve your hosting service itself or the technical aspects of your web design. Sometimes, the problem involves both things at the same time. If you have both services with the same company, you’ll be able to get help with either issue at the same place.

    2. Faster Updates– When you have your hosting and web design services with the same company, you also get faster updates when you need something updated quickly. Many of the changes that you make on your website are small things that should be able to be updated quickly without a hassle. If you have two separate companies for hosting and design, you may have to contact both in some cases to make sure the changes will work.

    3. Billing Aggregation– One of the best things you can do to simplify your life as an online business owner is to aggregate (combine) your billing obligations in a systematic manner. Putting your web design and hosting services with one company allows you to pay one bill at the same time, thus simplifying the billing process.

    4. Easier Maintenance– When you use the same service with both, you also simplify the web maintenance process. Uploading photos, videos, or other files is easier when you have your hosting on the same service as your website.

    5. Compatibility– There are sometimes issues with compatibility between your hosting service and your web design service. By having them both in one place, you eliminate the possibility of incompatibility or limits you don’t know regarding various forms of content that you may want to include on your site.

    Finding the Best Solution

    When you are trying to find the best solution for your web design, you may want to try out a few of the discount coupons to see what they offer. Alternately, it’s a good idea to go directly to their website before you join one of the deals to see what their regular service is about.

    Then you can base your decision on the facts that you have before you and decide which service is the best for you.

    About Web Design Team

    If you need help building your website, we can help. We are expert web designers with experience in graphic design, animation, infographic design, and many other creative design aspects. When you sign up for our service, we will design, maintain, and host your website for your business and help you with any issues you have.

    Take a look at our online portfolio to see what we’ve done for others and then fill out the online form to get a free quote. A great website is just one step away when you get us to design and host your website.

    Another advantage of our services is that we can assimilate many different languages and platforms into your website including Joomla, WordPress, and other platforms. So there are no worries about compatibility between platforms, programming languages, or other specifications or requirements across platforms.

    Even if you have purchased a plan for a previous hosting service, contact us, and we can help you transfer your domain to our plan quickly and easily. Keeping things the same is not always the best choice. To make things better, contact us to get started with a new website at webdesignteam.com.

    Because a deal is only a deal if it helps you reach your goals.

    The post How to Find Discount Coupons on Web Design and Hosting Services appeared first on Web Design Blog - Web Design Team.

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    7 of the Best Website Design Courses on Udemy https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/7-best-website-design-courses-udemy/ Thu, 03 Aug 2017 16:32:39 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=649 You may have heard of Udemy.com. It’s also known as “the Academy of you.” It features a multitude of fascinating free and paid courses that you can take to improve your self-knowledge in a variety of different areas that may help you to improve your impact as an online business owner. Effective business owners know […]

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    You may have heard of Udemy.com. It’s also known as “the Academy of you.” It features a multitude of fascinating free and paid courses that you can take to improve your self-knowledge in a variety of different areas that may help you to improve your impact as an online business owner.

    Effective business owners know that it’s important to be a magnet of knowledge by focusing on resources that will help you to expand what you are doing to optimize your ROI and employ social media and effective marketing techniques.

    In this post, we will take a look at seven of the best website design courses that you can find on Udemy. Then you can decide if you would like to investigate these classes for yourself and brush up your web design skills. Each of the courses below also includes their default price listed on Udemy, but you can also find Udemy coupons to get many of these courses for as low as $10 each.

    Ultimate Web Designer and Developer Course

    The Ultimate Web Designer and Developer Course is a course by Brad Massey, a coder, who has vast experience in creating and maintaining websites. This course will teach you web design skills from both a coding and a software design perspective and features the following aspects:

    • Build 23+ custom design, web and programming projects – from scratch!
    • Learn more than 18 professional disciplines
    • Plan, design and code your very own self-directed project – from A to Z!
    • Code at an expert level of proficiency with HTML & CSS
    • Plan, design, and program robust, and fully custom websites and applications

    This course costs $200 for the full version, but you can preview it for free. To see a review of this course on Udemy, go to the video preview.

    7 Day Blog Challenge – How to Create a Blog

    7 Day Blog Challenge is a course on blogging, which was created by Zac Johnson. Through this course, you will walk through all of the introductory and advanced steps to launching a successful blog within a short period of time. The course is broken down into seven days, but can actually be fully functional and live within a couple hours of time. Include in this course you will learn how to:

    • Preplan for the launch of your blog and find the right niche
    • Registering your domain name and setting up web hosting
    • Installing WordPress and making all necessary setting changes
    • Creating the first content for your site with blog posts and pages
    • Setting up a mailing list and call to actions for your blog

    This course costs $95 for the full version, but you can preview it for free. To see a review of this course on Udemy, go to the video preview.

    Build Responsive Real World Websites with HTML5 and CSS3

    Build Responsive Real World Websites with HTML5 and CSS3 by Jonas Schmedtmann, features the jQuery coding language as well as a host of other web design tricks and methods that will teach you to create original web pages.

    Other languages you’ll learn in this course is CSS3 and how to create special effects and other techniques to build real world websites that work.

    This is an 11.5-hour course with video and other resources to watch and learn from. If you want to get to create your website, this is a good place to start. The course costs $195 for the full course and it’s free to preview.

    Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3 – Advanced

    Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3 – Advanced is a less expensive course that focuses on responsive design and uses HTML5 (the language of app development) and CSS3 (the latest edition of cascading style sheets). This would be a great course for you to look into if you don’t have 12 hours to spend on updating your skills, but it will show you some of the essentials that you can then use to apply to your web design plans.

    Preview the course here to see if you’d like to take it. You have to be a member on Udemy.com to take the course. You can preview this course here.

    Learn Advanced PHP Programming

    Learn Advanced PHP Programming is a great course if you want to get into the PHP programming that many website owners are using to take their website to the next level. PHP stands for “Hypertext Preprocessor” and addresses coding from a “backend” model that allows you to interject various components into HTML before you create your finished website.

    PHP is considered an open source scripting language that works with web development and allows you to embed it into HTML.

    This course is focused on PHP and features 6 hours of on-demand video that you can use to improve your skills in web design and coding. The cost of the course is $50 and you can preview it here.

    The Java Spring Tutorial: Learn Java’s Popular Web Framework

    The Java Spring Tutorial: Learn Java’s Popular Web Framework gives you a look at Javascript as it applies to the Java Spring framework and teaches you how to integrate Javascript within the other types of languages such as HTML and Spring to create websites and programs.

    If you have a basic knowledge of HTML programming, website coding, and CSS, you may want to take this more advanced Javascript course that lets you delve into Javascript as a tool for taking your website design to a higher level.

    You can preview this course here and the cost is only $35 for the entire 28 hours.

    Landing Page Design & Web Design Fundamentals 2017

    Landing Page Design & Web Design Fundamentals 2017 by Isaac Rudansky, features techniques to design a “highly converting page without a single line of code.” The author of this Udemy course also gets into depth in some pretty important topics for online business site owners such as:

    • Running A/B tests on your websites to see which one is converting best
    • Building “perceived value” into your website design
    • Creating a call-to-action that will convert more people
    • Using psychological techniques to convert within your framework

    Unlike some of the other courses that focus primarily on one aspect of coding or programming and web design, this course may be one of the best one for business owners to check into because of its emphasis on techniques for online businesses.

    Online business owners can benefit from this unique approach to creating and maintaining a website that focuses on your landing page, call-to-action, and other assets that can contribute to the success of your online eCommerce site.

    This class will cost you $195, but it may be worth the 10 hours you’ll spend watching the videos that focus on things online business owners need to know to build a great business site that converts. Rudansky has a masters’ degree in Industrial Psychology and is the founder of Adventures Advertising Group. They have figured out how to apply some important psychological principles that will increase your powers of persuasion and conversion to maximize your impact online.

    See the preview here.

    Applying Psychology in the Online Business World

    These courses all give you tips that you may find helpful in furthering your impact with your business site and reaching the people you need to convert using strong language and sound arguments for your brand.

    Find a course that you think you would benefit from and sign up if you want. We’re not an affiliate marketer for Udemy in any way, but we thought these courses might serve as a great resource for you in the future if you need to brush up on your design skills in the future.

    Only you know if you have the time to devote to learning a new coding or design technique. As with many things, entrepreneurs often have to choose between spending time or money.

    If you decide you have more money than time, call on us to create your website instead of trying to learn it yourself.

    We are webdesignteam.com, and we make a career out of creating and maintaining professional web sites for online eCommerce and site owners.

    Check out our work on our main site, read our blog, and contact us for more information. Time is money. If you’ve got the money, we’ve got the time.

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    What to Do When Someone Copies or Steals Your Site Content https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/what-to-do-when-someone-copies-or-steals-your-site-content/ https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/what-to-do-when-someone-copies-or-steals-your-site-content/#respond Mon, 26 Dec 2016 17:07:02 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=241 Copyright is important when it comes to creating digital content and content for your business website. You must guard your content, your web assets, and other digital property like you would guard your home, car, or brick and mortar building. When you own business, especially a business online, you realize the risks involved in putting […]

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    Copyright is important when it comes to creating digital content and content for your business website. You must guard your content, your web assets, and other digital property like you would guard your home, car, or brick and mortar building.

    When you own business, especially a business online, you realize the risks involved in putting up information and media, articles, and other intellectual works on your website. It is, after all, the world in which anyone with internet access can see and download your site content. This is something site owners and brands of all sizes must consider when creating content online.

    In the past, you had to secure a federal registration for your work to be able to say that you are copyright claimant. Now, with so many works being created and displayed online, you automatically are considered the copyright owner once a work is created “in a tangible form.” That being said, for works that you expect to go viral or which may potentially increase your revenue, it may be worth the trouble and fees you’ll pay to register it.

    stealing_site_content

    How will your stolen content be used?

    Part of copyright law is for the purpose of protecting how your content is used. It is not simply to ensure that you make money with the content. In fact, unless you are an independent author or producer, you are probably more concerned about how your content will be used rather than the loss of revenue you might experience from the content.

    But if you have some outstanding articles, videos, or other content on your website, you could very well also lose revenue and potential income due to theft.

    Whatever the case, your concerns are understandable, and you should do everything possible to keep others from infringing on your rights.

    How to Protect Your Content

    First, let’s talk about how to protect your web content. There are some things you can do to keep others from being able to steal it. This won’t guarantee that no one will be able to figure out a way around it, but these are some good measures you can take to reduce the likelihood of theft.

    • Use the copyright symbol on all intellectual works.
    • Use watermarks on videos and photos.
    • Use WP Copy Protect for WP sites.
    • Disable photo and video downloads.
    • Don’t include downloadable files.

    The Creative Commons License

    Sometimes announcing that your work is copyright-protected as “all rights reserved,” can scare off potential customers or clients with a legal warning. It can leave a bit of a bad taste in their mouth. Even though you are fully justified in being somewhat threatening about illegal use of your work, you could consider sharing at least some of your content with others without legal penalty with a Creative Commons license.

    If you are digital media business owner, you would likely not want to take this approach, especially if you are in it to make money from digital downloads or your online content. Writers, producers, and others would want to continue using the standard copyright notice and guarding your content in that way.

    As a basic rule, if you make money from your content outside of it being an asset on your website, stick to the basic copyright notice. If you are a business outside of that, you could use the Creative Commons license to allow limited sharing with others. When you share your content without fear of legal retaliation, you may encourage relationships with other businesses or clients that may lead to sales.

    This is a choice you have to make, and you should base your decision on whether you want full protection or limited protection on your site content.

    What to Do When Someone Steals Your Content

    When you are convinced someone has stolen your content and you have a full copyright protection (either common law or statutory copyright), there are some things you should do to take action.

    1. Notify your site administrator or web server. Some web server administrators will help you with this issue and may go after the people involved if they know who they are. You may not get monetary compensation, but you may at least have the content removed from the duplicate site.

    2. Report it to DMCA– The Digital Millenium Copyright Act protects you from having others infringe on your rights of copyright. If you had your work clearly copyrighted and others have used your graphics, articles, videos, or other web content without your permission, you can report it here and they will help you. If the report turns out to be true, they can use legal action to take down the infringing site.

    3. Report it to Google. You can search Google’s search engine to see if anyone has duplicate content to your website. Remember that there may be some similarities as topics are often revisited and graphics can be very similar at times. But the content must be done in a unique way. Blatant copying of your work is prohibited, unless you have allowed this through a Creative Commons type license. If you find someone has infringed on your work, report it to Google to file a formal complaint about the duplicate content.

    4. Report video theft to YouTube. YouTube, like Google, is adamant about observing copyright law and protecting the rights of authors, video producers, and content providers. If the theft involves a video, file a complaint with YouTube.

    5. File a lawsuit. This is a more drastic measure, but if all other methods have been exhausted, you may have to resort to this. Keep in mind, however, that you will not have the ability to file a federal lawsuit for copyright infringement if you do not have the work legally registered with the Office of Copyright. This should be done before publication of the work. Using the “common law copyright” statute is not usually enough unless you have carefully documented and can show proof of ownership.

    Most business owners will not want to invest the time, money, and legal resources to filing a federal lawsuit for content that is only meant to promote their business and brand. Like anything, you will always want to weight the level of potential financial loss, legal risk, and other factors when deciding whether to file a lawsuit for copyright infringement or even whether to legally register a work.

    The Case for Federal Registration

    Registering work does give you more advantages if you do have to seek a claim. But the cost can outweigh the benefits.

    WebDesignTeam

    Inappropriate Usage Issues

    Sometimes issues involving inappropriate use come into the equation. In these cases, such as the inappropriate use of your web content on an offensive pornography site or some other attempt at character assassination, must be dealt with swiftly to avoid having your online reputation damaged for good.

    One solution to watch out for these things is to start with a dedicated web server who can keep a watchful eye on your content and help you in the event of a problem.

    At webdesignteam.com, we take care to create and maintain your website in a way that discourages theft, and we keep your security as the website owner in mind at all times. While we are not attorneys or legal representatives, we do know the law regarding copyright of web content, and we can help you make sure your site is secure from possible theft.

    If you have any problems with your website content or design either before, during, or after we finish our work, contact us and we can help. With dedicated professionals helping you reach your website goals, you’ll know that help is just an email away.

    The post What to Do When Someone Copies or Steals Your Site Content appeared first on Web Design Blog - Web Design Team.

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    The Evolution of WordPress and How it Changed Website Creation https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/evolution-wordpress-changed-website-creation/ https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/evolution-wordpress-changed-website-creation/#respond Mon, 07 Nov 2016 20:24:57 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=164 WordPress is one of the most popular online blogging platforms in today’s business world. Business owners, as well as musicians, artists, non-profit organizations, and many more have discovered that WordPress is one of the best ways to have a website to promote your brand on an easy-to-use platform. In this article we are going to […]

    The post The Evolution of WordPress and How it Changed Website Creation appeared first on Web Design Blog - Web Design Team.

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    WordPress is one of the most popular online blogging platforms in today’s business world. Business owners, as well as musicians, artists, non-profit organizations, and many more have discovered that WordPress is one of the best ways to have a website to promote your brand on an easy-to-use platform.

    In this article we are going to take a look at why WordPress is one of the most used platforms for site design, and how it’s evolved into the massive brand and open-source solution it is today.

    WordPress to Create a Website

    The History of WordPress

    WordPress started in 2003 when blogs first came to the forefront of the internet and business owners started to realize that blogs were a great tool for business. WordPress used a single line of code to allow users to write entries easily and quickly.

    WordPress is an Open Source project which allows numerous options such as extra WordPress templates that you can download to add to your site easily. Since it’s inception in 2003, WordPress has grown in popularity and is now seen by millions every day. Be sure to check out these examples of brands using WordPress, to see how influential the software has been in helping growing companies around the world into the household names they are today.

    You can use WordPress for anything you choose to, from a simple recipe site to keep your favorite recipes and share with friends to a major Fortune 500 website. It is an excellent way to put your brand out there in a format that is easily recognizable and compatible with other platforms.

    How to Install WordPress

    To use WordPress, you can simple go to their main website to download and install the software to your computer, or create a free site through their WordPress.com site. It is completely customizable and simple to use for the novice or experienced user. When signing up to a web hosting solution, many will provide you with a simple one-click installation of the software. The option is also there to download it manually, create a database and install the software yourself.

    The Evolution of WordPress

    WordPress started simply but it has grown into a multi-format system that allows you to include thousands of plugins and widgets and themes. The only limits of WordPress are within your own imagination.

    As WordPress continues to evolve, so do the business opportunities for those catering to users of the platform. You can see a list of such WordPress based-businesses here.

    The Community Element

    One unique attribute of WordPress is that there is an active community within WordPress that you can be involved with as well. Sharing ideas about your blog with others can help you to make it better or to connect and network with others in your niche or industry area.

    How WordPress Came to Be

    WordPress grew out of a need for a well-structured personal publishing platform that is built on a PHP and MySQL system that is licensed under a GPLv2 system. That’s engineering talk for a system that lets you incorporate high-tech coding within other websites.

    The good news is that you do not have to actually know code in order to use the WordPress system. It is all preformatted for you. So it is easy to create a blog or website within the WordPress theme.

    WordPress Through a Mobile Device

    How WordPress Changed Web Design

    With the invention of WordPress, web design has changed in a number of ways for those who choose to use their platform:

    • WordPress offers an easy way to create a fast, professional website
    • WordPress allows you to use a variety of templates.
    • Utilize community resources and extra templates to enhance your brand.

    Of course, not everyone uses WordPress for their web design, but it is a frequently chosen option since it is easy to use for those who do not have the coding knowledge they need to do it with raw code.

    Best Advice for Using WordPress

    If you have decided to use WordPress for your web design, there are a number of tips we can offer to take advantage of the best WordPress features:

    • Take advantage of the preformatted templates.
    • Download other templates to add to your website.
    • Check out the plugins to expand your website further.
    • Check out the themes.

    As you can see, WordPress is a flexible platform that allows you to utilize several different tools to enhance your website within the WordPress format.

    The Limits of WordPress

    WordPress is a great platform that you can use to create and host your website. However, there are plenty of other platforms and hosting solutions that you might want to consider in order to expand your options.

    WordPress is great but it is limited in what you can do with that platform alone. For example, WordPress requires that you work within their templates and forms. Just like any preformatted template, you are going to sacrifice some of your creative freedom just by using a solitary platform.

    You can always use the extra plugins and add-ons in order to expand your site to some extent, but WordPress is somewhat limiting when used in isolation.

    Integrated Solution

    One of the best things you can do to use the best of WordPress while getting the advantages of other platforms is to get a professional web design team like webdesignteam.com to do it for you.

    At WebDesignTeam.com, we specialize in helping businesses and web owners create the perfect website for their brand. The good news is that, if you like using WordPress as your content management platform, we can keep everything the same in the backend, while just focusing on the look, feel and structure of your site.

    We have a team of highly-talented creative designers and web developers that create sites that are both static and dynamic and allow you to conduct eCommerce or any other type of site within your WordPress theme. We also do professional graphic design, logo design, and infographic design to add to your site, along with animated video and custom animations.

    If you want the best of both worlds and want to combine your WordPress site with a unique standalone site solution, contact us. We are artists, engineers, and technicians that want to help you create your website to work in the way that you want it to with all of the best tools and resources.

    You will see your site increase in targeted traffic when you offer them something valuable within your blog and website that they will appreciate and want to share with others.

    Check out our portfolio and you’ll see our best features include:

    • Graphic design
    • Website design
    • Logo design
    • 2D and 3D animation
    • Infographic design

    In the bottom line, WordPress is great. It has changed the way people do web design by allowing anyone to put up a website with minimal effort. However, due to the limits of their templates, you may want to hire a professional design team in order to add more creative options to your website design.

    WebDesignTeam

    Contact us

    If you are a WordPress user or just want a better solution for your website, contact us. We would love to talk to you about your website and show you how you can improve your web design by incorporating the best elements of WordPress with our unique hosting site and design plan.

    Visit our website and check out our portfolio, then let us know how we can help.

    The post The Evolution of WordPress and How it Changed Website Creation appeared first on Web Design Blog - Web Design Team.

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    7 Famous Brands Using WordPress to Power Their Sites https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/7-famous-brands-using-wordpress-to-power-their-sites/ https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/7-famous-brands-using-wordpress-to-power-their-sites/#respond Thu, 29 Sep 2016 20:15:55 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=80 The key to making an impact online is in having a great website. There is more to website ownership than design, but that’s where it all starts. The format is important too. The format of your platform or templates that are included in your editor determines where and when you can place your images, text, […]

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    The key to making an impact online is in having a great website. There is more to website ownership than design, but that’s where it all starts. The format is important too. The format of your platform or templates that are included in your editor determines where and when you can place your images, text, and other content on your page.

    Your hosting solution is a part of this too. Many people prefer the WordPress platform for its ease-of-use, ability to use original content, and professional look. They also have many different themes that can emphasize virtually any business that you have and that you want to promote.

    WordPress is a valuable tool for both small and large businesses. It allows anyone to promote their business or their brand in a way that gains them followers and customers, as well as helps them to promote their articles, blogs, and ideas.

    Some of the most influential media publications, as well as some of the best brands, use WordPress to boost their brand.

    the_wall_street_journal

    Wall Street Journal

    The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is the most popular financial magazine in the United States that reports daily stock activity and business trends. People rely on the information they get from the Wall Street Journal to make important investment decisions and to help them predict what the market may do. They host their site on WordPress and utilize their features that help them create engaging content for their articles and posts.

    forbes

    Forbes Magazine

    Forbes Magazine is another high-profile publication that uses the power of WordPress to promote their publication and house their content. They have chosen a newspaper-like theme that features a navigation bar at the top of the page, and they utilize a bottom news need that lists other articles they have published on the bottom to increase views to their other content. It also appears they may be using some native advertising on the right margin to make money on ad revenue.

    nfl

    The NFL

    Believe it or not, even the NFL uses WordPress. They use a WordPress theme that allows them to post updated scores from around the NFL in “real time” on their website. The NFL site has a format that more closely resembles an online newspaper and the site is highly informational.

    The theme of the NFL’s page, of course, centers around the world of football and keeps football fans up on the latest news affecting the sports industry.

    mashable

    Mashable

    Mashable also uses WordPress for their world-famous publication, and it works nicely with their content. Mashable is the online equivalent of a famous newspaper, and their focus is on social media news.

    They use a WordPress theme that allows you to place blocks of news stories throughout the page and integrate social media sharing features within the platform.

    perez_hilton_-_hollywood_s_hottest_celebrity_gossip

    Perez Hilton

    Before Perez Hilton became the household name he is today, he was once a fashion guru and independent blogger of his very own gossip site — which eventually became what you know today as PerezHilton.com.

    Over the years, the site has generated billions of visits and millions of dollars for Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. (now known as Perez Hilton). With the core concept of the site simply being on celebrity updates and paparazzi pics, a platform like WordPress has made it extremely easy to not only create and run the site, but also manage and scale it over time.

    dole

    Dole Bananas

    Did you ever wonder if there was a Dole Banana site just dedicated to bananas? Well, there is, and it is located on a WordPress site. They have a business-themed site that allows customers to select from an online tour, recipes using bananas, and awards that the company has received. Now, granted you cannot download a banana from the internet. They don’t sell bananas on their site. But they do have an avid awareness of the importance of a website to promote their brand, and they use their resources to do that. Their site is simple, but it gets the point across.

    When it comes to bananas, Dole doesn’t monkey around. They rake in over $7.2 billion per year in banana sales, and their WordPress site helps them do it.

    techcrunch

    TechCrunch

    Another well-publicized site is TechCrunch. They focus on technology news, and they have a live ticker that keeps you in the know on the latest technology events all over the world. Major companies are often highlighted that people come back to in order to keep their tech knowledge sharp.

    Some of the stories they had running at the time we wrote this article are ones about IBM’s new DataWorks project that promises to enterprise data a new name, and Honeywell’s new Smart Thermostat technology that controls your home’s temperature for maximum efficiency.

    At the top navigation bar, you can select “Video” or “Events” as well as other choices to navigate around the site, and the bottom section features a list of recent videos that you can click on to see what is trending. TechCrunch, a highly-successful online publication that focuses on the world of technology, relies on WordPress as a platform on which to carry their message to the world.

    Why WordPress?

    These seven brands, many of them world-famous publications, use WordPress’s platform to carry their information and message to their readers. The WordPress theme seems to work nicely with online publication type sites because of its formatting features. But you will notice that other types of businesses also use WordPress to help with their branding and promotions.

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    Using WordPress can help you present your brand in a professional manner that will increase your reputation and credibility by improving your image online.

    Of course, using WordPress is just one way you can create a website. You can also use other hosting sites and various business templates and incorporate them into your site.

    A Holistic Approach

    What is needed to ensure that you make the biggest impact is a holistic and integrated approach. By using a web design team that focuses on creating a professional website that engages and informs your audience.

    The web has made us all performers. It is almost as if we have to “put on a show” for our key prospects to get their attention. It has to be informative. It has to be interesting. But it also needs to be professional.

    The overall look of your website is important. So is the content. Everything you do online should be based on sound principles of marketing and presentation that help you draw attention to your brand.

    At WebDesignTeam.com, we understand what has made these companies, and many of them successful. It’s not just WordPress. That’s just the platform. WordPress is a great format to put your site on and it can be a stable platform to house your content.

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    But there are many other tools that you may want to utilize also. We have been helping businesses create and maintain great websites for awhile now, and we’ll be glad to do the same for you.

    Remember that your web design is just the framework for your brand online. But it needs to be done right. We can incorporate video, animation, blogs, and many other tools that will help you make the right impact with your customers and help you generate leads.

    After all, you’re in business to make money, right? Let us show you how we can design a site that will get you leads and customers and increase your bottom line. We also do graphic design so you can have a custom-made page that is fully integrated with WordPress or any other platform that you want to use for your company’s online presence.

    The post 7 Famous Brands Using WordPress to Power Their Sites appeared first on Web Design Blog - Web Design Team.

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    15 of the Best WordPress Plugins for Photographers https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/15-best-wordpress-plugins-photographers/ https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/15-best-wordpress-plugins-photographers/#respond Thu, 08 Sep 2016 22:53:45 +0000 https://www.webdesignteam.com/blog/?p=40 Photographers need plug-ins. But not just plug-ins for their photography equipment and lighting. They also need WordPress plugins. WordPress is one of the most popular sites today for blogging and creating business websites. Photographers need tools that will allow their work to be displayed in the best way possible while illustrating their best work in […]

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    Photographers need plug-ins. But not just plug-ins for their photography equipment and lighting. They also need WordPress plugins.

    WordPress is one of the most popular sites today for blogging and creating business websites. Photographers need tools that will allow their work to be displayed in the best way possible while illustrating their best work in places that it will get the most views and engagement.

    If you’re not a photographer, but you are in a field that requires you to showcase photography such as media companies, children’s book publishers, or even just a company with relevant images to show, we can help.

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    15 WordPress Plugins Every Photographer Should Be Using

    We’ve rounded up 15 of the best WordPress plugins for photographers in this post.

    So, whether you are a professional photographer looking to get more views on your content or you just want to use photography to promote your brand on Instagram and other sites, you’ll want to check these out!

    1. Envira Gallery – Envira lets you create mobile-friendly image galleries that are also fully responsive with mobile devices and look equally great on all types of mobile technology. This is a big thing these days with so many of your users coming in from different platforms. Google also requires mobile-friendly content.

    You can also add metadata to the galleries, and that makes Envira one of the most search engine-friendly tools for WordPress available today.

    2. Regenerate Thumbnails – This application plugin allows you to save your images in various sizes, and you can also add additional sizes. This is great for photographers who wish to display their work in the tradition of the real-world photographers where customers are used to seeing various sizes of “proofs” before purchasing.

    3. Image Widget – Image Widget allows you to add an image widget to your WordPress site by a simple drag-and-drop process. Select an image from your gallery or upload a new one from your computer using this handy plugin. You can also add multiple image widgets in a sidebar if you wish.

    4. Imsanity – Imsanity allows you to lower the image resolution of very large images so that they are more manageable. This saves you time and bandwidth and increases the speed of your website for viewers.

    5. WordPress SEO by Yoast – WordPress SEO by Yoast helps photographers by allowing you to optimize your pages and enables you to use open graph meta data. Open Graph is used by Facebook and other social sites to allow you to display your pages properly when shared by others.

    It also helps you with optimization by increasing your traffic to your images via smart SEO engineering features.

    6. Pinterest Pin It Button for Images – Pinterest users, will want to have this plugin and photographers will need it in their arsenal of tools. Pin It allows you to easily add an image or photo from your site to a Pinterest board with a backlink to your site. This increases traffic to your photography site while also allowing you to utilize Pinterest for your photography business.

    7. Click to Tweet – Click to Tweet increases social engagement on Twitter by allowing users to “click to tweet” any of your images that they find on your photography site.

    8. Simply Instagram – Simply Instagram lets you connect your WordPress site to your Instagram profile with ease and share photos, add recent upload streams, and show featured photos. It’s easy to add the simple short code to your website and also allows you to post a sidebar widget.

    9. WordPress Tagger – WordPress Tagger lets you sort and categorize your images and photos in a certain order, helping you sort out your pictures in a way that is convenient for you. Your users can easily find select photos that they want to see using certain search terms and you can find them easier too to show customers. WordPress Tagger helps photographers make things easier when sorting and selecting photos.

    10. Easy Watermark – If you need to watermark your photos to protect them from misuse, try Easy Watermark. This plugin allows you to quickly add a watermark to your valuable photos and protect your work. You can also use it to watermark previously uploaded images.

    11. WP-Invoice – WP-Invoice allows you to invoice your photography customers within the WordPress platform without the need for external software programs. The program guides you through the process and makes it easy to include your invoicing right within WordPress’s platform for billing your photography clients.

    12. Post Thumbnail Editor – This plugin lets you crop and save thumbnail images in any way you want, allowing you to have much more creative freedom with your image editing within the WordPress platform, without having to go offline to use an external editor for your thumbnails. Keeping everything is one place increases efficiency with your photography business and helps you stay organized too.

    13. Storyform – Storyform adds a unique story-telling function to your photos. This provides a way to enhance your images on your WordPress site and increases the tendency for audience retention and engagement on your photography site. Use it to tell a whole story or just use it to describe the location where the pictures were taken.

    14. Soliloquy – The Soliloquy WP theme allows you to add an image slider to your photos on your photography site and comes with lots of features such as dynamic sliders, video sliders, animations, and importing abilities. You can even upload your photos that are already on Instagram and other photography platform applications to add to your growing photo collection.

    15. Wordfence Security – Wordfence Security gives you protection from third party intruders and offers you a higher level of defense against theft. It analyzes your WordPress site and tells you if you have been recently hacked by someone scanning your source code or server. Then you can report this to authorities and take action against these acts.

    Creating a Professional WordPress Photographic Site

    Having the right tools is a major part of the process when it comes to professional photography. Whether you need tools to house your priceless photography work, want to increase your security, or showcase your work in a different way, we hope these tools will help you do that.

    When it comes to professional web design, you need a professional team of experts like WebDesignTeam.com. We take every business’s needs into account and design the most custom-made website for their company. Whether you are a photographer wanting to showcase your work or any other type of business, we can help.

    WordPress is great for a quick website. But if you want a company that can incorporate WordPress while also tweaking the WordPress themes and format to make it shine, we’re the ones to call.

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    Check out our site and see what we can do and let us know how we can help. View our portfolio by clicking on the portfolio link at the top of our navigation bar. You’ll see why people prefer us to most any other type of web design method, including a do-it-yourself approach.

    We want to make your photography business (or any business) stand out in the crowd. Contact us for more information on how we can help you take your WordPress photography site to new levels or display your photos on your business site in the best way.

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