This slide set is for a seminar I did, "Meet The Author of WordPress in One Hour for Lawyers." I went over some of the basic of setting up a website using WordPress. Obviously, I could only go over so much in an hour. But I address choosing a domain name, picking a host, basic set up, adding and editing pages, posts and media.

1. WordPress for Lawyers
Building a Website for your Law Firm
North Carolina Bar Association
Presenter
Jennifer Ellis
Lowenthal & Abrams, PC
&
Jennifer Ellis, JD
@jle_jd
www.LowenthalAbrams.com
www.jlellis.net
Copyright Jennifer Ellis, 2014. All rights reserved.

2. About Jennifer Ellis
• Legal Malpractice & Ethics Attorney
• Also Manage Online Presence for Lowenthal &
Abrams, PC in Philadelphia
• Consultant – Online Marketing for Lawyers
• Jennifer Ellis, JD
• Author
• WordPress in One Hour for Lawyers
• Available on ABA’s Website

3. Today’s Seminar
• Choosing a domain name
• Picking a host
• Installing software
• Setting up the basics
• Design
• Choosing plugins
• Adding widgets
• Creating and editing a page
• Creating and editing a post
• Adding media
• Updating software
• Security
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Ethics

4. You Can’t Build a Website in an Hour
• But you can create one in
• A weekend
• A week
• A month
• Websites are a continuing project
• Keep adding content
• Examine results
• Improve
• Repeat

5. Why WordPress?
• Easy to install
• Easy to use
• Easy to update
• Great functionality through plug-ins
• Free software
• Supportive community
• Excellent for SEO

6. Choose a Domain Name
• Your address on the web
• Choose carefully
• Branding
• First thing people see
• Creates a sense of who you are
• Email address
• Relate to your firm
• Easy to type
• Not too long
• No dashes
• No numbers

7. Think Through Your Branding
• Firm’s Name?
• Initials?
• Law or Lawfirm at the end?
• Area of practice?
• Geographic area?
• Hard to find good names
• Be creative
• Use .com

8. Ask Others to Look
• Bad Examples
• whorepresents.com
• WhoRepresents or WhorePresents
• speedofart.com
• SpeedOfArt or SpeedoFart
• therapistinabox.com
• Therapist in a Box or TheRapistInABox

9. See if the Name is Available

11. Not Available?
• Add law, lawfirm or lawyers?
• Consider other options
• Be careful about adding S or ing
• Especially bad if the other site is a law firm
• Domain available for sale from the owner?
• Check for cost

12. Choose Webhost
• Reliable
• Able to handle WordPress
• One click installation
• Recommend
• Web Synthesis
• Bluehost
• HostGator

13. Purchase Hosting Plan
• Don’t choose the lowest plan.
• Choose an appropriate plan
• Business Level
• WordPress specific (if available)
• But….see discussion on Sucuri & CloudProxy
• The lowest level is fine for Web Synthesis
• Note, can register your domain on Bluehost or HostGator.
• Not on Web Synthesis

17. Point DNS
• What is a DNS?
• Domain Name Server
• Domain Name System
• Connects IP address and domain name
• Type in domain name, sends it to the right location
• Like a phone book or a map for the Web

18. Using Same Registrar & Host?
• Will not need to point the DNS
• It should automatically work
• Less secure to use both in the same place

19. Different Registrar & Host
• Required to point DNS to the correct location
• The steps vary based on your registrar and host
• Sometimes change Name Servers
• Sometimes change IP Address
• Get information from Host
• More secure

20. Warning – Email!
• Make sure you do not mess up your email when you change your
DNS!
• If in doubt, ASK!

24. Installing WordPress

28. Setting Up the Basics
• Click on Settings and Access
• General
• Writing
• Reading
• Discussion
• Permalinks

29. General

30. Writing

31. Reading

32. Discussion

33. Permalinks

34. Website Appearance
• Theme
• Complete website design
• Modifiable
• Coding
• Internal options

35. Finding Themes
• Within WordPress
• Free
• External sites
• Various prices
• Framework themes
• Basic underlying framework
• Theme over the framework
• Hire website designer

36. Within WordPress

38. Preview

39. Install External Theme

40. Modify Theme

41. Options Vary

42. Plugins & Widgets
• Add functionality
• Plugins
• Back end
• Widgets
• Front end
• Often work together

44. Recommended Plugins
• Yoast WordPress SEO – SEO
• Askimet – Comment Spam
• Acurax Social Icons – Social Media Icons
• Disable Comments – Hides Comment Box on Pages
• Display Widgets – Controls Where Widgets Appear
• Gravity Forms – Contact Box
• Jetpack – Numerous Tools (including statistics)
• W3 Total Cache – Speeds Up Site
• Advanced Image Styles (control aspects of image appearance)

45. Using Widgets

46. Drag to Location

47. Enter Data (If Needed)

48. Result

49. Plugins with Widgets
PLUGIN
WIDGET
RESULT

50. Important – Updates!
• WordPress = Microsoft of Web
• Common malware attack target
• Update plugins and software as required
• Use security
• Sucuri Malware Scanner ($89/year)
• Plugin and external scanning service
• Sucuri Cloud Proxy ($9.99/month)
• Sucuri included with Web Synthesis

51. Updates

52. Content
• Pages
• Posts
• Media

56. Editing

57. Media

58. Gallery

59. Upload

60. URL

61. Edit Media - Add Advanced Image Plugin

63. SEO
• Content matters
• What will bring clients?
• What questions are they asking?
• Answer the questions
• Good links from other sites
• Encourage linking with good content
• Write for sites with follow me links
• Follow me = recognized by Google as
providing link “juice”
• No follow = no link “juice”

64. SEO Tools
• Yoast – WordPress Plugin
• On site SEO analysis
• Moz – External Help
• http://moz.com
• Education
• Analysis
• Comparison
• ahrefs – Linking Analysis
• https://ahrefs.com/

65. Yoast
• Provides tools to analyze each page and post
• Helps with Sitemaps
• Other tools as well

67. Yoast

68. Yoast

69. ahrefs
Provides
detailed
information
about links

70. Moz
Analyze your site
against others for
key words and other
information

71. Choose your key
words

72. Compare
Competitors

73. Google Analytics
• http://analytics.google.com
• Numbers
• Location
• Pages
• Bounce rate
• Mobile versus desktop

75. Google Webmaster Tools
• http://webmaster.google.com
• Informs if problems with site
• Provide Google with sitemap
• Information about Google searches

77. Ethics Rules 7.1 et seq.
• Marketing rules apply
• Use appropriate disclaimers for your jurisdiction
• Do not share detailed information about clients without permission
• Appropriate disclaimer – past results do not guarantee future outcome
• Beware providing specific legal advice
• General, educational information

78. Questions?
• Feel free to contact me
• Jennifer@jlellis.net
• Twitter: @jle_jd
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/jle.jd