July 6, 2017 — DESIGN IS DEAD!
Why does every website look the same today? Let’s take a stroll down the internet history of web design, see what went wrong, and what went right. I’ll also share some useful tools and design tricks to break free from the cliché and stand out in the world (wide web).
LONG LIVE DESIGN!

Presentation Slides »

July 6, 2017 — Online, everything’s a competition. If your website isn’t healthy enough to compete, you lose, which can be detrimental to the profitability and viability of your business. If you want your business to win the online marketing race — or at least place in the top 10 — you have to train for it, just as you would if you were preparing for an actual, physical race.

In this session, I will provide you with a five-point training regimen that will help you whip your WordPress website into shape and make it a true contender in online marketing.

1. Learn what website architecture issues to look for and what tools will help you detect them
2. Discover the role of keyword research in today’s online marketing landscape and how to properly optimize content
3. Understand content’s role in online competition
4. Learn social media’s threefold role in your website’s health and how it impacts search rankings
5. Know what usability issues you should be testing to make using your site effortless for visitors

July 6, 2017 — Have you thought about starting a blog but don’t where to start? In this talk, you will hear the thought processes that went behind the start up of tinykitchenbigfood.com, a food blog, last year. In an easy and practical way, he will share the top four take-aways on content creation and blogging for new bloggers including: A) Avoiding “paralysis by analysis” and comparisons to established sites, B) Start writing for YOU, C) Learn more about WordPress and SEO as you go, D) How to find your voice with in your niche.

July 6, 2017 — There are more ways to share WordPress content every year. WordPress offers a range of solutions, ranging from the old RSS standards to newer REST approaches and even templated caching strategies like AMP. Making sense of it can be hard. Matt Bakaitis will share his experiences and observations managing a content engineering team for Cleveland Clinic, serving almost 70 million visitors per year via WordPress.

July 6, 2017 — I’ll explain what a custom post type is and how you can use them the with the plugin called “WP-Views” to create a specific layout of content for your client.

Points of emphasis:
1. What is a custom post type and why would you use one?
2. Advantages of customizing WordPress layouts.
3. Explain by example, how to customize a site by mocking a basic page up with some styling.
4. Emphasize how this can help separate yourself from others who just use what is available in the theme or plugins. A web designer/developer can give the client EXACTLY what they want. (Well, most of the time.)
5. Discuss simplifying the publishing process for the client.
6. No PHP experience needed

July 6, 2017 — Computers have one job: to read and process data. One job, and sometimes they *still* need help!

Structured data puts you in control, ensuring that search engines and other parsers aren’t misreading your information. Get your events recognized as events, your business address as a location, and those product reviews working to attract customers!

Implementing good, structured data is also the first step into the Google Knowledge Graph, the Holy Grail for content marketers. Better yet, with modern standards, it’s easier than ever before to get started!

July 5, 2017 — Various “dos” and “don’ts”.

July 5, 2017 — The process of building an effective website starts long before you even touch a WordPress installation. The simple truth is that your audience will construct a story about your business or organization. If you want that story to match the vision you have for it, you’ll need to put some thought into how to talk about yourself to your users. In other words, you must consider your brand. Whether you’re doing it yourself, or hiring professionals, this talk will give you guidance on designing an authentic, intentional, brand that attracts ideal customers, and translates well both on and off-line. We’ll talk about what should inform your brand choices, and how to effectively communicate to your audience with your site’s design, content, and functionality. We’ll also discuss ideas for how you can go about infusing your brand into offline interactions for a consistent user experience.

July 5, 2017 — There is a lot of talk in WordPress circles about the WordPress Community but is that Community just for “insiders”? Why should a business owner who uses WordPress to power the business website care about a WordPress Community? If a Healthy Lifestyle blogger uses WordPress what possible reason would they have to care about a community of WordPress nerds?

I’d like to tell about the importance of community in general, and then bring the focus down to the WordPress Community in particular. The business owner, by becoming involved in the WordPress Community, will find new solutions for problems they may not have even realized they had. There are also numerous networking possibilities that would remain totally hidden without being in the WordPress community. The same holds true for the blogger using WordPress.

And for those of us who may be “WordPress Nerds” – are we welcoming to ALL users of WordPress? We must be if we truly want to be a community. We also stand to gain by exposure to other ‘worlds’ that we may not be exposed to by any other means.

Let’s explore the WordPress Community and find out how to dive deeply into that community and benefit everyone.

July 5, 2017 — Adam Silver and Kyle Maurer are the co-hosts of the Get Options Podcast which is an irreverent advice show about your life with WordPress. This session will be a live recording of the show featuring pre-selected listener questions followed by live audience Q&A. No topic is off limits. Come expecting thoughtful, expert advice with heavy doses of sarcasm and humor.