Being Freed logo

Library of all things
WordPress and Mailchimp

What’s a featured image?  What’s a domain name?  Why is SEO so important?  Here, I introduce terminology, theory, and mechanics behind the tools I use to produce WordPress websites and Mailchimp marketing.  I mean: who the heck knows what a segment is, anyway?  I do, and I’m sharing.

Do you have a question or a topic you’d like me to address?  Use the button above to get in touch with me and I’ll take a look.  Who knows – it might already be in the queue.

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A picture of the Glass house mountains seen from Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve

Queensland

My journey in Australia continues this week with travels in Queensland. We saw dozens of kangaroos and a few koalas. Soooo sweet!

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A close-up picture of the Sydney Opera House, showing several structures and the tile work on the facades.

Trip to Australia!

I’m taking a break from essays for a couple of weeks to spend time with friends in Australia! Sydney first; Brisbane and more next week 😀

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Page Speed

Page Speed

What’s your page speed? What *is* page speed? It’s how fast your page loads onto your visitor’s device. And it might be the most important thing of all.

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Portfolio Websites

Portfolio Websites

I am offering up to five portfolio websites at a great price for a limited time. Design, build, launch – let’s get your work out there!

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Website crawling -- a graphic depicting a Pac-man board

Website Crawling

In website crawling an app called a bot thumbs through your site to understand your purpose & content so the engine can index it right.

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A graphic with the following words: SEO for Images - JPG, WebP, Sizing, Descriptions, Captions, PNG, Alt Text, SVG, Files names, and Coloring for all types of sight.

SEO for Images

Applying thoughtful SEO to images improves page load speed, user experience, and search engine ranking. And only takes a few minutes.

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4 Types of Search Engine Optimization - On-Page, Off-Page, Technical, and Local, with the Being Freed seagull, looking on

4 Types of SEO

There are various types of SEO. Here’s a primer to four biggies: on-site, off-site, technical, & local. All of them increase organic traffic.

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S*P*M - Society of Props Managers

Careers evolve

Circumstances change. Careers evolve. The pandemic gave me the chance to change careers, but I still have my toe in the door of my old one.

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A graphic with a goldenrod gradient background, with the words, "Keyword Research" spelled out in green tiles reminiscent of a Scrabble board. In the corner is Being Freed's seagull icon in a tile.

Keyword research

Keyword research teaches you phrases your audience uses in their online searches. Smart application of keywords helps your peeps find you.

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Website Cookies: used for auto-fill, password, shopping cart, analytics, and language. This graphic depicts those categories as the fortunes sticking out of fortune cookies.

Website Cookies

Website cookies are little bits of information servers store on your computer, tablet, phone, or other device, to help websites function.

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Backlinks

Backlinks

A backlink is a hyperlink that appears in someone else’s page or post and leads to your website. They’re (usually, mostly) good for your SEO.

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Website Breadcrumbs: Ukulele > tenor > novelty > watermelon

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a trail that indicates your place on a website: little word maps showing where a page lands in your site’s hierarchy.

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An image of a WordPress blog archive page pointing out Page Header, Post Index, and Recent Posts. There's also a picture of a cute doggie.

Archive pages

A WordPress blog archive page, also called an index, is a page that lists all the posts on a website. It’s like a card catalog for your blog.

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Canonical tags Canon | noun | ‘ka-nen an accepted principle or rule a criterion or standard of judgment - Merriam-Webster Dictionary A canonical tag is an identifier used when you have multiple posts or pages containing similar content. It tells search engines which one to prioritize.

Canonical tags

A canonical tag is an identifier used for multiple posts or pages containing similar content. It tells search engines which one to prioritize.

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A graphic with the words, "Where can a cache be? A server. Your network or browser. Your device"

Caching

Caching is data storage located in little pockets along the chain between your web search and the server a site is stored on. It decreases page load time.

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A graphic depicting database stacks with the title, "What the heck are Servers?"

Website servers

A website server has two parts: hardware to store data and software to transfer that data. It stores your files and grants access to them.

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A graphic image with the words, "Mailchimp Journeys" and the Mailchimp logo.

Mailchimp Journeys

Automations and journeys are both useful tools offered by Mailchimp, but what’s the difference between the two? Hint: a journey is a type of automation.

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A graphic with various media file suffixes: .WebP, .jpg, .svg, .png, and .RAW

Image formats

JPG, PNG, WebP: which type of image file is better for your website? Which one has the smallest file size or offers transparency?

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A graphic withe the Mailchimp logo and the words, "Mailchimp Templates".

Mailchimp Templates

Mailchimp templates are pre-built frameworks used to quickly create consistently-styled campaigns. Templates can be used repeatedly and indefinitely.

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CRM - Customer Relationship Management

CRM

CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management: a system for collecting and using client data to build effective marketing strategies.

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Keywords Search SEO

What are Keywords?

Keywords are labels, strategically chosen and assigned to pages & posts. They categorize content so search engines can guide users accurately.

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Web hosting = File storage + computing resources + site setup tools + security + optimization + backups +staging platform + email + product support

What is a Website Host?

A website host is a company that provides software & storage for a site’s files. It’s like a smart filing cabinet that allows browsers to access a site.

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Being Freed

My spiffy new website

With a new year comes a new website! I’ve revamped to better reflect my services. If your small business needs a website or Mailchimp help, drop me a line.

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Why does this blog exist?

I’ll be honest here about this page.  I’m a middle-aged woman who changed my career post-pandemic. I love this line of work and I’m plenty tech-savvy.  For heavens sake, I started using computers daily in 1984 and they’ve been a huge part of my career and personal life.  But as I started learning how to build websites, I had a hard time finding answers to my simple questions. This stuff isn’t rocket science, but it is a puzzle where all the pieces have to work in concert. 

This blog is my answer to helping my clients (and anyone else) understand the mechanics of WordPress websites and Mailchimp.  It’s not just that, though: it’s my ongoing education.  Every time it takes me longer than 2 minutes to find an answer I add it to my syllabus.  This is not websites for dummies, because we’re not dummies.  Even so, it’s a long list so stay tuned and we can learn together. 

Can’t find the topic you’re looking for?  Message me and I’ll add a post about it.

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