25 Best Business-Building Tips from WordCamp Phoenix 2014

How to turn your WordPress website into a powerful business communication tool.

I often leave conferences excited by what I’ve learned, but frustrated knowing some of those cool new ideas will soon be lost as real life reclaims my attention.

So I made myself a list of the best tips I heard at WCPHX14, the annual Valley WordPress gathering that this year attracted a sell-out crowd of 750 people to Chandler.

I’ll be using a lot of these ideas to refine my website and build my freelance communication business.

Maybe some of them will be valuable to you, too.

The Tips and the Folks Who Presented Them:

Betsy Cohen, founder & principal consultant, Positive Element, Scottsdale, Arizona

Topic: Before You Build: Content, Brand and User Experience Strategy

Pen before pixels … sketch out the main functions of your website before you get into digital design.”

More tips from Betsy:

“Measure the factors that represent success for you.”

“Create short pages, short paragraphs, short sentences … and break up the page visually with images, block quotes and white space.”

Ken Granger, Founder & CEO, BrandCo, Orlando, Florida

Topic: Building Websites Visitors Want to Use

Make your ‘calls to action’ plentiful, apparent and make them what your visitor actually wants.”

More tips from Ken:

“Three critical questions for creating and evaluating your website:

• who for?
• what for?
• why for?”

“Make sure your search words lead people to pages that will help them with a specific issue, not just to your home page”

“Tell users what you want them to do … like give you their phone number or email address. They’ll often do it”

“Set goals for your website, and enter those into Google Analytics”

Stacey Harris: Host of Hit the Mic with Stacey Harris, @thestaceyharris

Topic: Promoting Content through Social Media

Google+ is a social network with a search engine for a brain.”

More tips from Stacey:

“Make content sharable, and give people obvious and simple options for sharing it”

“Create your updates at the same time you create your original content”

“Google+ Communities are a great place to share content in specialized areas – great for targeting niche audiences”

Joe Manna, Developer Partner Program Manager and Digital Prophet, Infusionsoft

Topic: Marketing & Selling with Word Press

Focus on super-easy user experience. Less is more”

Another tip from Joe:

“For a pay-per-click campaign, drive traffic to a landing page, not your home page … you want a page that will generate a specific action.”

Jennifer Bourn, owner & creative director, Bourn Creative, Sacramento, California

Topic: Content to Cash

Use keywords to target existing articles to different niche audiences.”

More tips from Jennifer:

“It’s not all about creating NEW content. Adapt what you have to multiple channels and multiple audiences.”

“Different people learn differently, so consider creating a slideshow with audio using Camtasia or a YouTube video”

“Use keywords to target existing articles to different niche audiences”

“Don’t worry too much about SEO. The more natural and contextual your writing, the better you’ll rank”

Greg Taylor, founder, Marketing Press, Chandler, Arizona

Topic: What’s Your Site without Content – and What to Do about It

Nothing happens until you press publish!”

More tips from Greg:

“Know your why … what do you need your blog to do?”

“Write down the questions people ask you … they’re a great starting point for blog posts.”

“Use words real people search for.”

“I get best results when I write my personal take or opinion about a topic vs. something purely technical.”

“Start a conversation.”

Thanks to April Holle and her team of organizers and sponsors of WCPHX14 for putting on such a valuable event.

Please comment to share YOUR best tips from WCPHX14!