UPDATE this is only for versions of Thesis prior to 1.7.

Hey guys and gals! I am kicking off my new series of posts Thesis for WordPress 101. As you probably could guess right now I am BIG Thesis nut. Mainly because I once was like you, scared and timid of messing with my sites design. What did I know, I went to school for Graphic Design, not Web! Well, a many moons ago WordPress came along, ok, not that long ago, but you get my drift, and if you didn’t know jack about web design all you could pretty much do is change your header on the Kubrik theme. Now, so many developers are making it easier for people will little to no skills what-so-ever create and customize their WordPress site. Thesis is just that. A framework that is technically a WordPress theme, but it is really just a framework that let’s you customize the crap out of it! Take for instance my site. It’s Thesis, and so are 99% of the sites in my portfolio.

Why I use Thesis

1. The main reason I use Thesis is because it is light and airy. A lot of plugins that I would have to add to a site for SEO are already there.Things it replaces: all-in-one SEO pack, no-follow plugin, SEO date exclusion, etc. etc. Plugins can slow your site down, become incompatible with other plugins and almost always seem to cause an error. With Thesis it is all built right in. Pretty nifty!

2. Design, Design Design-It is incredible you can take a theme and turn it into infinite possibilities. In my portfolio you can see the diversity that is Thesis.

3. User Friendly- I train clients on how to blog for SEO purposes, and also so people can be able to update and manage their site themselves. This is kind of a “mission” for me. I was that person back in the day too that had to call someone to change some text or graphic that I made on my site. No MORE! I said. Although I could change anything on any theme or what have you. I feel the learning curve for Thesis is much better for my clients.

Ok, Ok, Get on With it Show Us Already How to Add Our Header

Watch the Video and my 1.2.3 steps are below.

Below I show you how to install your already made header into Thesis. If you don’t have a header graphic I make them for a mere $45 bucks. I picked this as the first tutorial in my series, because a header is pretty much one of the best things to transform a site. It tells a story, shows who you are, and sets you apart from everyone else. Even if it is ugly :p

1. Have a header graphic made. If you don’t know what size to tell your designer, or me ( hehe) I suggest using this AWESOME Firefox plugin called Measure-It.

a. Install it

b. Restart FF

c. You will see it in your lower right hand tool bar.

d. Click on it and drag it across the header area on your website.

2. After you got the size figured out. Do some magic to your graphic, or wait to receive your 3 header revisions from your designer.

3.Upload your header graphic in your FTP or file manager. I normally make a file called “images” inside of my “custom” folder in Thesis. That way when I go to code the path into my .css all I have to type is /images/header.jpg. ( Remember the path to the image, and the image name. I just copy and paste into notepad, so I have it handy)

4. Log into your Thesis WordPress site.

5. Scroll down to Thesis Options>Custom File Editor. * Make sure you have your permissions set in your FTP to 666 or it will not directly edit from your WordPress dashboard. Check out how to change file permissions for Thesis if you don’t know how.

6. You are going to add this code to your custom.css and click save after you paste in: .custom #header
{
height: 250px;width: 850px;
background: url(‘/images/header.jpg’) left top no-repeat;
}

A couple things to remember. Change the height and width to the size that you made your header, and change the file name if you did not make yours header.jpg.

*Some things you might encounter:

1.The site title and tagline are still showing. Very easy go to Thesis Option>Thesis Options> Display Options> Header> Uncheck show title and tagline, then click your big ass save button.

2. There is padding around your header and you want it to be flush with your sidebars, borders, and navigation. Simply add padding:0px; to your header code like so:.custom #header
{
height: 250px;width: 850px;
background: url(‘/images/header.jpg’) left top no-repeat;padding:0px;
}

Also you can look inside Thesis Options>Design Options>Framework Options> .HTML Framework>Select Full Width, Then >Outter Page Padding and bring the padding down to 0.5 or 0, then click your big ass save button.

You DID IT!

I also can do this for you if you have thrown your hands in the air, and also can also make custom headers and graphics for you.

Contact me for info. Happy Thesis Designing!

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Due to the recent events surround some websites. I want to talk to you about security for your WordPress site, and how you can prevent bad things from happening to good people.

First let’s talk about backing up the site you already have just in case the worst comes to worst, and someone hacks it. So, you can say f*&@ you to whomever tampers with your site, because you will have all of your info. All you need to do is install a DB Backup plugin, and it will email you a daily backup of your website. Very handy, and extremely easy. I just install it through my WordPress dashboard by going to >Plugins>Add New> and then type DB Backup select the plugin, and click install. Then find it under settings and personalize the setting you would like.

A couple other ways to backup your site is through your host. If your site is running on a cpanel you can set it up for weekly or daily backups to be stored on your sever, very handy as well. If it isn’t cpanel like GoDaddy, they have a 30 day calender that has your site saved each day for 30 days. I don’t like GoDaddy, but this is cool.

So, first we will talk about some of the simple things to do to your WordPress blog.

1.When creating and installing WordPress , you should create a username other than admin.If you have it already, simply delete it and make a new one.

2. Activate the Askimet plugin which filters spam comments. To do this all you need to do is create a WordPress account and it will give you an API key to place in your blog.

Now these next 3 are larger precautions.

3. Install Maximum Security Shield plugin. The powerful Maximum Security plugin for WordPress is packed with strong protection that makes your site extremely secure. It guards against intrusion; tracks a plethora of events; blocks malicious content that could harm your readers and your search engine ranking; and includes a strong Web application firewall along with a full blown intrusion prevention system.

4. Install WP Security Scan The regularly updated WP Security Scan scans your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions.
It checks for vulnerable passwords, file permissions, database security, it hides the WP version, WordPress admin protection/security and it removes the WP Generator META tag from the core code. Powerful plugin.

5. Install Secure WordPress. As the title says, Secure WordPress, helps to secure your WordPress installation by removing error information on login pages, adds index.html to the plugin directory; removes the WP-version, except in the admin area.

6. This doesn’t have to do with installing a plugin, but it is a good idea to update WordPress to the latest version, and also your theme to the latest version once it is past beta.

7. Change your FTP login if you have give it out, you never know who will become bitter and cross the line.

If you need help installing these features. I am available for updating, and securing your WordPress. Let’s fight crime together!

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As a Web Design Phoenix Local I have been experimenting lately with WordPress seeing if I can get the same results or if not better by using a static page to rank as high as a blog post. After playing the waiting game I finally got the answer. It IS possible to rank in Google without making a blog post. It is still set up just like a blog post, but a page in WordPress is set up the exact same way a blog post is. So, you are essentially doing the same exact thing except, it is static and you are never changing it.

Here are my results. I created a WordPress website. I used one very low competition keyphrase and used different variations of it. Believe it or not it is used only twice on the actual page, and several times in the meta title and meta description. A tweak I made was making the keyphrase in the beginning of the title and meta description. Instead of somewhere in the middle. This boost the rankings several spots.

Web Design Phoenix SEO results

So it is possible to rank without posting to your blog by carefully researching the competition and searches for that term. This term is searched about 200 times a day!

It is even ranking above ARMLS which is the officials Arizona MLS website! How is that for SEO!

So there are several different ways to utilize WordPress and SEO as a Web Design Phoenix Local.

To check out my Web Design Phoenix Prices check out my services.

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