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Getting started with WordPress
Building a modern, professional looking website and keeping it up to date can be a challenge. There are tools that can take some of the tedium out of this process. One type of tool that is used more and more is the Content Management System (CMS). There are many varieties of CMS out there. Some are geared towards building a website for a certain type of business, like restaurants or real estate. Some are more general purpose. One that we’ve found really useful is WordPress. WP started out life as a blogging tool but has grown into something anyone can use to construct a useful and functional website. Continue reading
The mysteries of SEO
Search engine optimization is often a black art. The exact algorithms Google and other search engines use to rank one site higher than another in search results are both proprietary secrets and constantly being refined. What we do know is the more legitimate links to your website from outside sources the better your rank. Also, fresh information is valued above content that never changes. Your content should be valid useful articles, and not look like a list of keywords or search terms. In other words you shouldn’t try and game the system, as the search engines attempt to detect that behavior and will penalize you for it. SWCP has several directories where you can get legitimate links your your web pages. The Epromenade is a category based directory, and it feeds our business, non-profit, and personal directories. If you’re an SWCP customer you get a free listing in several categories, and in either the business, non-profit or personal directories. We recently added a new feature, you can have an individual “map” page with a Google map showing your location, address, website pointer, logo and a longer description about your company. To get a listing login to our members only area and fill out the “Request an Epromenade listing” form. Here’s an example of a “map” page listing for SWCP.
Using Roundcube to manage your Email
Roundcube is a webmail client that is a favorite of the SWCP staff. It has a number of features that aren’t obvious on casual use. Two of these features that save me an enormous amount of time are selective filtering and color coding messages. In this post I’ll discuss color coding. I’ll show you selective filtering in a later post. Color Coding Messages There are always some people whose messages you need to see and act on before any others. They might be family members or important clients, but missing an email from them is BAD. I use the highlighting feature of Roundcube to be sure I don’t miss these. Below is a example of what my INBOX looks like: The green items are from folks in our Networks Operations Group, light blue is from Tech Support staff, aqua is the DSL department, purple from our company head, and bright blue from customers I’m currently working with. This makes it really quick to figure out what I need to look at. How to set up Color Coding First select “Settings” from the upper righthand tool bar. Once in settings select the “Message Highlights”. Initially you’ll just see an empty gray box with an Add Row and a Save button at the bottom. Once you’ve saved some items you’ll see each of them listed.You can choose to match on Sender, Recipient, Subject or Copied to. In the text box next to … Continue reading
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