The basics of a website - For newbies
I was just reading the questions I had on the first day here, as a complete noob to the internet, when nobody answered and I was wondering at the time if maybeI'm breaking etiquette or I ask stupid stuff.
Now I understand, the questions I had were just too broad, and it was better to discover this on my own, because when you find the correct question, you also have the solution waiting. The solution is simple, it's the question that is difficult!
So don't waste time on difficult questions. Just ask the simple ones, and ignore the rest, they will answer themselves day by day as you follow your training and work on your website.
Looking back (which I do about every week) I see that I've learned more than I thought and expected:
- I know the WP editor well enough to do about anything I need. Solutions are sometimes tricky, I asked for some help with this but I think once you understand it, you can figure out how to do anything in it.
- I've never written anything in my life, except maybe the degree paper. Today, I have some articles that a few people read and liked, I keep up to date with posts and I'm getting more structured with every new one. I also learned here that it's good to adjust, but there is a limit to going back to published content.
- I understand the general principle of SEO and build my posts around it; I couldn't see how it could be a lot of work before, but when you get down to it, you realize the time you spend on thinking the general strategy, on researching, on adapting, and it adds up.
! This is the engine that powers your website. It's not only about being relevant - this is how you tell people "here, this is the information you're looking for, and the best one you'll find" and then it better damn well be! This is the soul of your website, so spend time on it.
- I installed Goole Analytics. It didn't make sense in the beginning, it was a bit sad, all flatlined with no data anywhere. But then it picked up. You just have to look at it, and at some point you will start to understand what you see: it's about making a connection with your audience, giving them what they look for.
- I'm starting to understand marketing better in general, I see how the big questions I had 2 months ago all break down into small questions floating in a soup of making sense, and small questions are easy to deal with.
My point is, don't dwell, follow your training and keep adjusting. If it's hard, you're doing it wrong. Remember, this is the INTERNET: you came here because you thought it was handy in the first place!
Recent Comments
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Mmm well I don't know if I should be admitting this but I personally have found it quite hard and I really hope I haven't been doing it all wrong :S I was also a complete novice and newcomer to everything taught here at WA. I've since done much head scratching, lots of question asking and spent many,many hours recapping previous lessons or following the extra training.
I'm getting a wee bit better at it now (SEO, keywords, traffic were all a foreign language a few weeks ago) but I will be relying on my fellow WAers for a while yet I think. But then again I'm here to learn and hopefully retain the information and I know too that I can ask for help if I get stuck. Someone will come to my aid! Interesting post and good luck with everything Jan.
There are people and there are people. My wife has a pretty high powered job in aviation and spends time working in Barcelona, Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Speyer, Toulouse, all over Europe. And no, she's not an air hostess; she's in procurement.
She could no more put a website together than I could do her job, even with one on one instructions. It's only easy if you know how to do it. Perseverance is the key, and good support from good friends. We'll all get there if we stick at it.
Oh sry, what I meant was that you shouldn't dwell on things and feel overwhelmed.
I do think things done well should be easy, but easy in the way that you enjoy doing them and they don't feel like a chore. Because if they do, it's not worth it, you should be doing something else.
Of course, there is a lot of work to do with this and I've only just started myself, but it's easy because I feel good about it and it doesn't put me off.
Hi Paul and pisicamov, I am absolutely enjoying it and can't wait to get cracking each day adding to my website. No one ever said it was going to be easy :0) and its all the more rewarding when it all starts to make sense and come together. We will all get there and help each other along the way.
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I like what you've said -- kick the tires, but get in the car and drive. Take a different path every once in a while, but get in and drive!