Top 10 WordPress Site New Year's Resolutions | WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service... | WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Dec 30, 2011 Posted by Judith in Business Tips, WordPress

Top 10 WordPress Site New Year’s Resolutions

At this time every year we review our business status and methodologies and come up with resolutions to try to improve our success and profitability in the year ahead. Excluding your WordPress Web site from this important effort considering online is more fluid than ever before would be a serious misstep.

For your convenience and consideration, I update this post each year so you can get a reminder of the things you need to think about moving forward!

WordPress site owners are safe to assume that there is no standing still or resting on your laurels when it comes to doing business online (That’s when your perceived competitors fly right by you!).

Here are the important issues, in my experience, most WordPress site owners can improve upon. I’ll also pepper each with links to other articles here on my site that cover each item in more detail for your convenience:

Top 10 WordPress New Year’s Resolutions10. First I need to do a honest self assessment to make sure I am up to the challenge that online success requires of all who do business online. While it doesn’t get any easier than WordPress, the build it and come days, are years behind us. Online is now the playground of serious businessmen and women with the insatiable desire to succeed — which means being ready to learn and embrace all the WordPress info and skills necessary to reach our goals. Are you honestly up to this challenge?

9. I will review my e-mail and customer service practices to make sure all communications with customers are grammatically correct, professional in appearance and tone and include the information the customer desires. I will respond to site comments and e-mails as quickly as possible realizing the rabidly competitive environment online will settle for no less — only Extreme Customer Service will do! This includes using my site’s domain name for all business e-mail communications which lends to my credibility and my first responses to inquiries being recognized instead of being misidentified as spam.

8. I will check my site at the beginning of the year, then minimally quarterly, to make sure information is current and updated. This includes updating my “About” page to show the now — not yesterday. I realize by not updating, my site is stale, offers no real value to my site visitors and hinders gaining any relevant rankings with search engines.

7. I will finally embrace the concept that to acquire any relevant organic (free) search engines rankings that I have to change how I view my site. Not as brochureware, but as a living, breathing interactive tool used to acquire, support and keep customers and cater to their needs. If I don’t have a Blog to carry out this task, I will set one up Q1 and commit to posting at least 3 times each week with new useful and relevant information my site visitors will appreciate.

6. Inline with #7 above, I will learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) basics and principles, so that I have a solid understanding about how search engines actually work, how they rank sites, and what I need to consider when adding content to my site. Without a solid grasp of this information I am literally handicapped and working at a deficit.

5. While content is King; promotion is Queen. After writing a new article I’ll then submit it to article repository Web sites so that it is available for publishing on other sites and newsletters. I will keep a notebook with me so that when I get an idea to Blog about, create a video or for an article or informative white paper, I’ll write it down and not forget to follow through. Unique helpful information is what makes WordPress Web sites popular and valuable which assists to increase ranking popularity.

4. I will check my WordPress site navigation, tag and category structure to make sure it is intuitive and not duplicative. If my theme doesn’t allow the navigation I need — I’ll get a new premium WordPress theme. I will make a serious concentrated effort to only categorize my information in the most relevant category. Not “categories”, or 5 or 10 or all! Sticking with only one or two categories allows my site information to be tightly organized and focused. Tags are given the same consideration and contributes to a “user-friendly” experience.

3. I will investigate all the Social Media networking opportunities and set up my site’s feeds wherever possible. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook are just a few of the sites I need to set up profiles on and use to brand and market my business.

2. I will update WordPress and my plugins as needed and not put this important and necessary task off! I will also make sure my site’s visuals and functionality stay current so that my business appears viable.

And the number one resolution that every WordPress site owner needs to embrace to succeed in the year ahead….

Raise your hand and repeat after me…

1. I will pledge to use interactive technology as it is now and whatever it evolves to be in the year ahead to its full potential for my business. From Blogging to Videos, Social Media to creative marketing tactics and everything in between. By not investigating how to best use these applications for my business is simply lost opportunity.I understand this will take some time and a bit of a learning curve to fully use these resources effectively on a daily basis, but I am a smartie and I know if it needs to be done for the health of my enterprise — I’m there!

Those site owners that embrace the interactivity options available to them will be found, will gain new customers and will support more business than those site owners who do not openly welcome these opportunities. If you do not embrace these 10 items in 2012, you can bet your competitors who do will reap the rewards.

With all the doom and gloom being fed to us in anticipation of the year ahead, I’m choosing to take a different stance and that’s why I’ve written this article for you. As one commentator I recently heard said, “Time to man up and make 2012 what you want it to be. Don’t be a passive observer but an active aggressive participant. Man up!”

And that’s exactly what I plan on doing here @ TheIStudio.com! Won’t you join me? Wishing you all the best of success in the year ahead!

At your service,
WordPress Consultant Judith
Your WordPress Consultant

5 Responses to “Top 10 WordPress Site New Year’s Resolutions”

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