I’ve made it a bit of a tradition to attend WordCamp Lancaster every year. It’s a forum providing nearly everything you need to know about the blogging platform WordPress.org and its updates from the experts.
2017 WordCamp put me on a mission to update the theme of The Age of Grace with a fresh look and a better mobile viewing experience. I’m still learning WordPress basics after blogging for five years. I now know the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org allows more flexibility with themes and plugins along with more control to update platform as needed.
Website owners and developers taught a full day of classes. I sat in on all the website owner presentations and afterward, I gave myself a few new challenges. The first one is to update my site with SSL certificate meaning HTTP to HTTPS because Google ranks websites without HTTPSlower. A side note: you know your site is secure with the green padlock and “secure” message in the browser.
My second challenge is learning how to use the free Gutenberg Editor Plugin with full integration with WordPress.org platforms. I utilize Grammarly as my premium online grammar checker. As bloggers, we all know rich content is just one of the factors considered in the SEO strategy. I will have the ability to disable use with Gutenberg. Hopefully, I won’t find that necessary.
To have the best website you can, use the checklist below to make sure you’re optimizing everything:
♦ Is your website mobile-friendly? Test here. The answer will be yes or no.
♦ How fast desktop and mobile sites load? Starting July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches. Check speed scores here
♦ Use this free site to help shrink images as large images slow down the site loading speed
♦ You can look closely at What URLs Google indexes for your site through a “site.”
Did I mention the class only $20 and a nutritious lunch? Click here to find one in your town. I hope you find this information helpful; it’s nearly everything you need to know about WordPress.org updates.
Have a fabulous week.
