Using WordPress Effectively in 2018 – A Summary of WordCamp U.S.

A few weeks ago, we got the great opportunity to learn from the best and network with fellow developers at WordCamp U.S. which happened to be in our beautiful city of Nashville.  We heard from the creator about the future of WordPress, got some great tips about new coding techniques, and learned everything that website owners can expect from the platform in 2018.

Below, you’ll find some of the highlights from WordCamp U.S. and some great tidbits that will help you when using WordPress for your website and business.

1. We treat accessibility as a bonus.  But it should be a requirement.

Accessibility was at the core of every session at WordCamp.  And it very well should have been!  Each and every website should be tested and easy to use for those who have hearing impairments, vision impairments, difficulty using a mouse, etc.

There were so many amazing tidbits that I learned throughout the weekend about accessibility when using WordPress that I’m going to write a separate blog post just on that (keep an eye out for it soon; I’ll link it here).  But here are some of the keys.

• Test for accessibility throughout the entire website development process, not just at the end.
• Make sure that your entire site works well using only a keyboard, not just a mouse.
• Use screen reader text to identify what an icon links to, let the user know when they’re opening a new tab, etc.
• Utilize headers to describe your content and break it up accordingly.  After all, “Headers aren’t to make text big but to describe the content that follows.”
• Pay attention to your link text.  Don’t just write “click here”, but use descriptive language.

I was really impressed with how focused WordCamp was on accessibility, and it definitely inspired me to make it even more of a focus during the testing phase of each website that we build.

2. Have a strategy and plan in place for security.

Security should absolutely be a key component when using WordPress.  It starts with choosing a good host, then moves towards locking down the site on the WordPress side of things.  Make sure to:

• Keep up with theme, plugin, and software updates when using WordPress.  And don’t forget to keep other software (like PHP and MySQL) updated on your host as well!
• Do a full code review of your site every so often to check for vulnerabilities.
• Try to avoid using FTP to edit your site code.  Instead, use source control for a more secure process.
• SSL is no longer a suggestion, but a requirement.  Many hosts offer this for free or, at the very least, at an affordable price!  See our full post about how to integrate an SSL certificate.
• Set up two-step authentication for all your users (or, at the very least, all admin users).
• Try to only have one administrator role and experiment with custom roles to ensure your users have exactly the right capabilities for them.
• Set up automatic backups of both your website files and your database.

But what if your site is hacked?  It’s easy to panic when something like that happens, so make sure that you have a contingency plan in place.  If a user is hacked, your first step should be demoting that role to a contributor.  Then, reach out to that user directly (via phone or in person) to ensure they’re who they say they are before restoring their full access.

Your plan should also include reaching out to your audience on social media to explain what’s happening and restoring a previous backup of your site (pre-hack).  Make sure everyone knows who’s responsible for what part of the plan and you’ll be good to go!

3. Make sure your typography is beautiful and readable.

Not only does typography play a big role in the professionalism of your site, it’s also really critical for usability and accessibility.  You should consider your audience and the size, weight, and colors of fonts that will appeal to them.  Here are a few tips:

• 16-24 px is generally a great size for body text
• Change the default line height (spacing between lines of text) to 1.4x – 1.6x the font size
• Keep your lines of text to 45-75 characters, depending on the font
• Be sure that your font color and background color contrast enough so that the text is still easy to read, even for those with vision problems or color blindness
• Make sure to adjust your font sizes for mobile devices.  They need to be easy to read no matter what screen size your site visitors are using!
• If your audience is older, consider increasing your font size accordingly.

4. Consider all of your options with a multilingual site.

If you’re building a multilingual site (which is a great way to sell to multiple countries!), there are a few things that you should keep in mind.  There are several excellent multilingual plugins that make it easy to translate your content and for your users to switch languages!

But plugins aren’t your only option.  You can also consider using the WordPress Multisite feature, along with a plugin like Multilingual Press, to run your website in different languages.  Depending on your site setup, this could be a much lighter way to do things and make your content easier to manage.

Plus, you need to make sure that you’re considering all of the things you’ll need to translate (hint: it’s more than just your body text!).  Think about currency switchers, the way that prices are displayed (where the decimal point and comma go), how dates are shown, alt tags, video captions, text within images, error messages, how times are written, the direction that text is read in, your URL structure, etc.  Definitely make sure that someone fluent in each language reviews the website in full before launch.

5. CSS Grid is opening up new doors with web design.

CSS grid is a relatively new development when it comes to coding and allows developers to easily align elements into columns and grids.  It’s much less limiting than other CSS grid methods (like tables) and allows for freedom in layout, like overlapping and layering columns.

By making columns more flexible, it allows you to be more creative and make the most of the available space on your website.  You can also make grids super responsive, adjusting not just the width of columns, but the number of columns on mobile devices.

Although, you should make sure that, if you’re going to start experimenting with CSS grid when using WordPress, you set fallback methods for unsupported, older browsers, until every browser type is on board.

Check out these amazing examples of sites taking advantage of CSS grid!

6. A “good” website is about more than design.

A good website needs to be functional.  Think about it – what if we couldn’t see?  Fashion wouldn’t be about design but would be about function, about keeping us warm and safe.  A website’s the same way; it serves a purpose beyond just looking great!

One of the biggest pieces of a functional website is making sure that a site visitor can find what they’re looking for.  Try this test: try to find a piece of information on your site using navigation and links.  Record the amount of time that it took, the number of clicks, etc.  Ask friends, employees, and your target audience to do the same thing and compare results.  Nothing should be more than 2-3 clicks away from your homepage.

Make sure that you’re also testing the search function on your site.  Does it deliver accurate information?  When someone conducts a search, is it easy to find what they’re looking for?  The Relevanssi plugin is a great tool to bulk up your search functionality and deliver more relevant results.

You can also ask the people in your business who deal with customers (salespeople, receptionists, your support team) what types of problems and questions they hear about regularly.  Make sure these are addressed to make your site as easy to use as possible.

7. WordPress is a community.

One of the things that impressed me the most about WordCamp U.S. was how much of a community surrounds WordPress.  A big focus of the conference was on partnering with one another to make development, coding, and the web a better place.

So no matter what your experience level is with using WordPress – whether you code or just started a new site – I would encourage you to get involved in the WP community.  They’d love to help you when it comes to using WordPress and there are events in a city near you!  And, of course, we’d be more than happy to answer any WordPress questions that you have.  Feel free to get in touch if you need any help!