Michelle Castillo

Date: January 23, 2017

Name: The 5 key fundamentals of creating a successful WordPress website

Presenter: Michelle Castillo

An effective business website can support successful entrepreneurs achieve their business goals; moreover, it can also capture more leads and clients. Internet Masterminds meetup invites Michelle Castillo, the President of Spot On Digital Marketing, to discuss how to use WordPress to build the right website with great conversion rate. In this presentation, entrepreneurs will discover the effective way to design website with minimal time. In addition, Michelle Castillo will provide considerations which entrepreneurs need to watch out for.

Michelle Castillo is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Spot On Digital Marketing. For the past 6 years, Michelle Castillo helps many small businesses to build the right website that works for their industries. She also published 2 eBooks called “8 Actions You Can Take Right Now to Optimize Your WordPress Website” and “3 Biggest Mistakes Business Make with Digital Marketing and How You Can Avoid Them”. Her inspiration and passion inspire many young entrepreneurs.

Michelle Castillo believes all entrepreneurs are not alone. Based on statistic survey, 9% of entrepreneurs believe their digital marketing is working; in fact, a half of the participants indicates they do not know if their marketing is effective. Moreover, only 14% of entrepreneurs already know it does not work at all.

Castillo considers herself as “Digital Mechanical Engineer”. When she discovered WordPress for the first time, she knew it was an important key for digital marketing.

To indicate whether a website is successful or not, result is everything. Castillo emphasizes website result is the product of traffic and conversion. Traffic means the number of people visit the site and conversion means the number of visitors do what entrepreneurs want them to do. Castillo shares 5 principles that can help entrepreneurs make an effective website.

Principle #1: Do your market research

It is important not to make any assumptions. Instead, entrepreneurs need to do their market research. Market research is important because it gives entrepreneurs valuable insights. It shows if the product or service has a market. It gives entrepreneurs what potential clients are looking for and who are the competitors.

Keyword research is important. Keyword research shows what words target audience used to look for the product or service. The stats will show the popularity of the keywords. Moreover, it tells entrepreneurs the language clients are using to reach their wants. Castillo believes keyword research can help entrepreneurs create the right content that satisfy their audience’s expectation. Entrepreneurs need to use the right keywords so the prospects can find them on website. Keywords can help website to rank higher on search engine. By using keyword search, entrepreneurs can discover topics that can make great blog posts.

Entrepreneurs should make a list of keywords associate with their businesses. Keywords should be specific. Entrepreneurs can ask themselves “what problem does my product or service solve for my typical customers?”. SEMrush is a way for entrepreneurs to check their competitors.

Castillo suggests entrepreneurs to use Google AdWords Keyword Planner. This tool requires an active AdWords account. It will help entrepreneurs narrow down the keyword search for statistic results. Moz Open Site Explorer is also a good tool to use. Entrepreneurs can also use Google Suggestion to show what ranks the most. Another suggestion is to install a Chrome Extension – Keyword Everywhere.

Market research should be ongoing activity. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to signup Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

Principle #2: Plan your content and make it about your client, not you

Entrepreneurs need to change the wording to reflect “how to help your clients?”. It allows effective communication on the product or service offering. Moreover, it helps with SEO.

Castillo suggests entrepreneurs to use the result of keyword research and create unique pages and posts. Castillo do not recommend entrepreneurs to make a long list of their services on the website because it is hard to search and it is hard on visual. It also lower the ranking on SEO due to too many keywords on single page.

“Think content first”

Principle #3: Pick a quality WordPress theme

Many entrepreneurs have hard time picking the right theme because there are too many out there to choose from. Not every theme is SEO-friendly and it is important to find th one that fits the need of their businesses.

Some WordPress themes have bad use of tags. They do not use <H1> tag properly and they use <H2> tag instead or make the font bigger. Furthermore, many WordPress themes have slow loading time.

Castillo suggests entrepreneurs not to use sliders. 99% of website now have sliders, but it crates confusion for visitors to know the primary business goal. Many researches show sliders are ineffective. Entrepreneurs need to plan first and think about how clients will feel when they visit their sites.

There are free themes available to use for website. These can be simple, but they offer very limited customization. Most free themes are designed for blogs and there is no guarantee on support and quality. Premium themes have wide variety of selection. They have good support and better quality. They have more customization and more functionally.

Castillo suggests entrepreneurs to use Thrive Theme, Divi, and Genesis. Thrive Theme is flexible and it can be used as lead capture or sales funnel. Divi is more modern flexible style. Genesis can be complicated and entrepreneurs are required to have more knowledge on WordPress.

Principle #4: Optimize from day 1

When entrepreneurs have the habit to optimize from day 1 of the website, it can save time and receive result faster. Castillo shows 2 important things that most entrepreneurs forgot to optimize.

• Permalinks
• Image

Permalinks need to contain keywords. When entrepreneurs change their permalinks later, it might take a while to redirect. Entrepreneurs can edit the permalinks from WordPress function and default setting.

To optimize image, entrepreneurs need to use ALT text tags. They need to use the right keywords in the image title name. It is important to use captions appropriately. In addition, entrepreneurs should not use images with 1000 or more pixel wide or 100kb or more in size. The website can spend a lot of loading time to run large pictures. It hurts SEO and users experience.

Principle #5: Plan for lead capture

Many entrepreneurs miss this step. They need to covert traffic into leads. By offering a lead magnet, free incentive or templates, visitors are more likely to join the email list. A lead magnet does not have to be complicated. Castillo strongly suggests not to use “Sign-up our newsletters” because it drives visitors away. There are many ways to create lead magnets. Moreover, they should be relevant to their needs and their expectations.