— AFTER PARTY —
— REGISTRATION —
— OPENING REMARKS —
— LUNCH —
Everything You Wanted to Know About WordPress But Were Afraid to Ask (60 min)
For many people, WordPress is a bit of a mystery starting with this very confusing question, “Do you have a WordPress.com or WordPress.org site?” What does that even mean? And why does it have to be asked?
In this session, we will talk about “What Is WordPress?” from an ontological perspective. Is it a content management system (CMS)? Is it a website? Is it a company? Is it a secret society of people who wear t-shirts with the letter W emblazoned on them and carry around weird stuff animals that look like Pikachu but aren’t?
After we get through that, we will talk about how WordPress (the CMS) works. We will start from the beginning, right from the moment you install WordPress. What happens after you click the WordPress installer at your web host (if you have self-hosted WordPress)? We will look at the WordPress database, the WordPress application files, and all the stuff you might upload to your WordPress website and where it actually winds up.
Through this session, we will reveal the secrets of developers. What are they actually doing tinkering with your theme files or building plugins? We will take a look at your theme files and how they work along with the WordPress application and various plugins to display the content of your site.
This is a talk for beginners, so don’t be intimidated to attend. This is where you can uncover the mysteries of your site and be a more aware WordPress user.
Workshop – Building Your First Site
Building your first website can be intimidating. There are a lot of things to consider and many decisions that need to be made. Unfortunately, most people don’t even know where to start.
The goal of this workshop is to:
- Educate you on the decisions you will need to make when building a site.
- Simplify decisions by providing you with frameworks for decision making.
- Help you gain clarity on your site’s content and structure.
- Provide a safe place where you can ask questions and get specific advice on your goals.
- Walk you through the process of inserting your content into WordPress.
- Show you how to select and install themes and plugins.
- Demonstrate how to build and launch a website (without code).
Workshop – Technical SEO Basics
SEO can be a scary unknown, especially technical SEO. It doesn’t have to be though. Come learn some basic things to be aware of like page speed and mobile usability. Walk away knowing how to do a basic audit of your site and what tools that will help you do it.
Becoming a Community Builder: A WordPress Story
This is my inspirational story of going from stay-at-home-mom (SAHM), to entrepreneur, to intentional community builder, and how I caught the eye of a well-known page builder to coordinate and build their community. WordPress played an integral role in this journey, and it caught me by surprise.
Let me share with you this motivating story of how an open source software and the community that surrounded it help this woman with no identity (that wasn’t contingent on another human ((wife/mom)) find hers.
How to Master Keyword Research (Even if SEO Makes You Feel Lost) (30 min)
Keyword research is one of the most important foundational elements of SEO. SEO Content Strategist Matt Lacuesta shares his detailed approach to keyword research, which includes an emphasis on data and human intuition working in tandem with each other.
In this keyword research-focused session, you’ll learn:
- The basics regarding how keyword research impacts efforts with onsite SEO, backlink building, and technical SEO (website structure).
- Multiple different approaches to finding keywords, even if you’re struggling to find the right terminology to start your search.
- The importance of relevance and intent and how to create a content calendar that addresses searchers at various stages in the buyer’s journey.
- How to validate keyword ideas based on search volume and keyword difficulty.
- How to rank for more than one primary keyword by incorporating semantic keywords.
- How to effectively use keywords in content to properly signal Google.
- Various tools for doing keyword research, tracking rankings, and spying on the competition (including free and paid options).
- …and so much more!