Owner’s Manual

Managing Content

Preview Content and Tagging

Preview content typically includes a featured image, title, excerpt, and possibly some detailed text about the author and publication date.  This content is important because it is your visitor's first impression when they see your content on social channels, search engines, and even feeds within your own website. For more SEO tips and tricks, go to the SEO with Yoast section.

Add An Excerpt

At the very bottom of any piece of content, you should see a field called Excerpt. If you do not, you can find Screen Options in the very top right corner of your editing window. These options enable you to hide or show fields that may or may not be relevant to you. Ensure the Excerpt fields is checked. Excerpts are typically 150 to 160 characters in length to align with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practices.

Tagging Content

In any content type, you should see several taxonomies including, but not limited to, Categories, Tags, Resource Types, and Featured Areas. These can be found in the right sidebar under publishing options. There are many different reasons to tag content, but typically they are used to narrow down the content that is filterable or dynamically generated.

• Categories are typically available for any content type and act as a general bucket for any miscellaneous use-case.
• Resource Types are specific to Resources and are used to filter content by the kind of media. Example: Infographics, Videos, Reports, etc.
• Grade Levels, Subjects, and States are front-end filters users can use to filter Fellow, Grantee, and Board of Directors.
• Tags are the exception to the rule. They are strictly used for SEO purposes and are not used to filter content. Add tags or keywords to a post so search engines can get a better understanding of your content.
• Featured Locations are being used in the Quotes content type to create the testimonial carousels. If you would like to add a quote to a specific carousel, please select the associated checkbox and update the quote.

Blog Posts

Posts allow you to manage and edit your blog content. Click Posts in the left sidebar of your dashboard and then Add New to create a new blog post.

First, add a page title. This will be the main title of your blog post and will be used to generate a link to the content. Then, add your main body content using the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. For more information about the WYSIWYG, check out this in-depth breakdown of the WordPress WYSIWYG. Finally, select any categories/taxonomies that apply to the post and upload a featured image. The featured image is the graphic that is used when the post is shared on social channels and in filterable lists throughout the site. The ideal image size is 1200px wide and 630px tall.

Review the descriptions of any other fields to enhance your content.

Publishing A Blog Post

Once you are ready to review your updates, you can click the Preview button in the top right corner of the screen, under your publishing options. This will allow you to see what the page will look like before publishing.

When you are ready to publish your content, you can click the blue Publish button to post the content immediately or select a date and time to schedule your post. Please note that times are set in military time, so if you would like a blog post to publish at 3pm, you would need to set the time to 1500.

Team Members

Team Members allow you to manage and edit your staff and board of director bios. Click Team Members in the left sidebar of your dashboard and then Add New to create a new bio.

First, add the name of the team member in the title field. If you would like your team members to arrange by the last name, add their name as follows: "Last Name, First Name". Then, add your main body content using the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. For more information about the WYSIWYG, check out this in-depth breakdown of the WordPress WYSIWYG. Finally, select any categories/taxonomies that apply to the post and upload a headshot to the featured image. The ideal image size for these headshots is 360px wide by 540px tall.

Review the descriptions of any other fields to enhance your content.

Publishing A Team Member

Once you are ready to review your updates, you can click the Preview button in the top right corner of the screen, under your publishing options. This will allow you to see what the page will look like before publishing.

When you are ready to publish your content, you can click the blue Publish button to post the content immediately or select a date and time to schedule your post. Please note that times are set in military time, so if you would like a blog post to publish at 3pm, you would need to set the time to 1500.

Sponsors

Unlike other content types, sponsors do not automatically live on their own page. Once you create a group of sponsors, you must use Swift Page Builder to place a sponsor grid on a page. Click Sponsors in the left sidebar of your dashboard and then Add New to create a new logo.

First, add the name of the sponsor to the title field. If you would like to include a description of case study for this sponsor, you can add that to the main body content use the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. For more information about the WYSIWYG, check out this in-depth breakdown of the WordPress WYSIWYG. Next, upload the logo and website URL under Sponsor Meta. The image you upload should be a minimum of 300px wide by 100px tall and should not have any white space around the logo. Add/select a category to group your sponsor with others.

Publishing A Sponsor Grid

When you are ready to publish your content, you can click the blue Publish button. Publishing a sponsor will make the logo visible in any grid on the site that relates to your designated category. Your sponsor grid will look something like this:

Resources

Resources allow you to manage and edit your infographics, reports, and more. Click Resources in the left sidebar of your dashboard and then Add New to create a new blog post.

First, add a title. This will be the main title of your resource and will be used to generate a link to the content. Then, add your main body content using the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. This can be the full resource content or an abridged version. For more information about the WYSIWYG, check out this in-depth breakdown of the WordPress WYSIWYG. Finally, select any resource types that apply to the resource and upload a featured image. The featured image is the graphic that is used when the resource is shared on social channels and in filterable lists throughout the site. The ideal image size is 1200px wide and 630px tall.

Upload a Downloadable PDF

You can upload a PDF or other media along with custom button text. This is specific to the resource content type and can be managed in the "Resource Meta" section. The button will appear toward the top of the resource and will force download when clicked.

Review the descriptions of any other fields to enhance your content.

External Links

In addition to Reports and Issue Briefs, the Resources content type is being used to curate and categorize news articles written about NEA's work. These have been assigned the Type of "In the News." However, because these pages don't have body content they will all be using the External Link field for the URL to the referenced article.

Tags

Tags are being used to create smaller groups of Resources around a specific topic. For example, the list of news articles on the Breakfast in the Classroom are all tagged "breakfast in the classroom." To add items to a specific list, add the appropriate tag the item and save.

Publishing A Resource

Once you are ready to review your updates, you can click the Preview button in the top right corner of the screen, under your publishing options. This will allow you to see what the page will look like before publishing.

When you are ready to publish your content, you can click the blue Publish button to post the content immediately or select a date and time to schedule your post. Please note that times are set in military time, so if you would like a blog post to publish at 3pm, you would need to set the time to 1500.

Grantees, Fellows, and State Awardees

Each of these Content Types produces a different list of people on the site. Click Grantees, Fellows, or State Awardees in the left sidebar of your dashboard and then Add New to add a new person.

• Grantees creates the list on the "Our Grantees" page.
• Fellows create the list of the "Meet the Fellows" page in the Global Learning Fellowship section.
  • Each Fellow should be assigned a Grade Level, Subject, and State to populate the filters.
• State Awardees are used for the "California Casualty Awardees" list and the "Horace Mann Awardees" list.
  • The Categories should be used to assign a person to the appropriate award.

SEO with Yoast

SEO is an extremely important aspect of your site and something to consider whenever you update or add any new site content. We’ve installed a tool called “Yoast SEO” which will help guide you towards matching your site content with important keywords.

Using Yoast SEO

Content (Tab that looks like a traffic light)

1. The Snippet Editor previews what your page looks like in a Google search result. Click “Edit Snippet” to update the SEO title, slug (also known as the URL), and the meta description.
2. Focus keyword: chose the main keyword or phrase that matches the content on the page.
3. Meta keywords: additional keywords that pertain to the page content
4. Content analysis: Based on your focus keyword, the content analysis will analyze the page content based on a benchmark of checks to ensure the focus keyword makes sense. This includes an appearance in the URL, meta description, title length, etc.

Social  (Tab that looks like sideways “v”)

This section enables you to personalize the social media title, description and image representation for Facebook and Twitter should you choose. For images, be sure to pay attention to the recommended sizes listed in the descriptions.

On-page Optimization

Title Tag

• Avoid duplicate title tags
• Keep title tags at 55 characters or less in length, including spaces.
• Your title tag should be written like this: Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
• Use a dash in between your keyword phrases and a pipe at the end before your brand name

Meta Description

• Write compelling meta descriptions (for CTR)
• 150 to 160 characters is the recommended length
• Avoid duplicate meta descriptions
• Do not use quotes or any non-alpha characters
• Use target keywords in the description

H1, H2, H3

• Use H1 Tag for Page title
• Use your keyword phrase once in your H1 tag
• Use H2, H3 tags for subheadings if there are multiple sections

Anchor Text

• When linking to another page on the same site from within content, select good anchor text (keywords) to use in the actual link and do this often. For example: “We offer *target keywords* services,” rather than “Click here.”

Image ALT tags and filenames

• Include your keyword phrase in the name of your image. Name all of your images in a way that describes what they are.
• Do not use non-alpha characters in your image or file names (no %, &, $, etc)

Footer Content

You can update the footer content by navigating to Widgets. Use the dropdowns under the "Footer Content" widget to find the content you would like to update. Once you have made the necessary updates, click Save.

Elementor Page Builder

For more information about Elementor components and how to use them, subscribe to Elementor’s YouTube channel. There are a lot of resources there, to help you get started, watch this introductory video that will go over building pages, using editing tools, using page templates, and creating your first section.

An excellent resource for accessing components and saved templates can be found in your site’s Asset Board and Component-Board. By leveraging the pre-built components featured in both of these links you can construct fully functional web pages. More is included in the tutorial below.

Let’s take a step-by-step tour through your WordPress site and see how the different functions work and how to make your new site your own. During the first part of this tutorial, please don’t change anything within the program unless it is part of the tutorial. After following these steps, you’ll soon be changing everything.

Accessing Your Website

Follow the steps below to access the dashboard of your WordPress website and begin managing your website.

Log Into Your Website

Media Library Basics

The Media Library is where you can upload and manage your images and other documents all in one place. PDFs, Word documents, and graphics are all added to the media library for use throughout your entire website.

Uploading + Link to Media

If you would like to upload a graphic, such as adding a picture to your post, then you must first upload the content to the Media Library. Once there, upload your image by clicking Add New, by choosing Select Files, or by dragging and dropping an image into the browser window.

Once the file uploads completely to the list below, select the recently added thumbnail to reveal the image's full options. For SEO and accessibility purposes, it is highly recommended that you provide a descriptive Alt Text for the image. This text tells search engines and users using screen readers a bit more about the image's contents.

You can use the URL provided in the top-right corner of the media settings on any other page throughout the site.

Editing Images

This section will describe how to use WordPress’s built-in image editor. If an image is saved in the media library and already in use, do not update this image. This may update it in other sections of the site. Add a duplicate and alter from there.

Go to the Media Library section in the left sidebar. Click on an image in the list to view its settings. Just below the image click the Edit Image button.

From left to right, you have options to crop, rotate to the left, rotate to the right, flip vertically, flip horizontally, undo, and redo changes to your image. If you wish to crop, drag your cursor over the image, to the proportions you would like visible, then click the crop button in the top left. If you do not like the change you have made, click the back or forward arrows.

If you would like to change the size of the image, update the New Dimensions in the right column under Scale Image. This will automatically scale your image proportionally and you cannot scale images up, only down.

Blog Posts

Posts allow you to manage and edit your blog content. Click Posts in the left sidebar of your dashboard and then Add New to create a new blog post.

First, add a page title. This will be the main title of your blog post and will be used to generate a link to the content. Then, add your main body content using the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. For more information about the WYSIWYG, check out this in-depth breakdown of the WordPress WYSIWYG. Finally, select any categories/taxonomies that apply to the post and upload a featured image. The featured image is the graphic that is used when the post is shared on social channels and in filterable lists throughout the site. The ideal image size is 1200px wide and 630px tall.

Review the descriptions of any other fields to enhance your content.

Publishing A Blog Post

Once you are ready to review your updates, you can click the Preview button in the top right corner of the screen, under your publishing options. This will allow you to see what the page will look like before publishing.

When you are ready to publish your content, you can click the blue Publish button to post the content immediately or select a date and time to schedule your post. Please note that times are set in military time, so if you would like a blog post to publish at 3pm, you would need to set the time to 1500.

50th Anniversary Stories

Stories allow you to manage and edit your content that can be found on the 50th Anniversary page. Click Stories in the left sidebar of your dashboard and then Add New to create a new story.

First, add a page title. This will be the name of the person or organization related to your story. Then, add an excerpt and link using the fields under Media Options. Finally, select a story type (video or audio) that applies to the story and upload a featured image. The ideal image size for the image is 400px wide and 400px tall.

Review the descriptions of any other fields to enhance your content.

SEO with Yoast

SEO is an extremely important aspect of your site and something to consider whenever you update or add any new site content. We’ve installed a tool called “Yoast SEO” which will help guide you towards matching your site content with important keywords.

Using Yoast SEO

Content (Tab that looks like a traffic light)

1. The Snippet Editor previews what your page looks like in a Google search result. Click “Edit Snippet” to update the SEO title, slug (also known as the URL), and the meta description.
2. Focus keyword: chose the main keyword or phrase that matches the content on the page.
3. Meta keywords: additional keywords that pertain to the page content
4. Content analysis: Based on your focus keyword, the content analysis will analyze the page content based on a benchmark of checks to ensure the focus keyword makes sense. This includes an appearance in the URL, meta description, title length, etc.

Social  (Tab that looks like sideways “v”)

This section enables you to personalize the social media title, description and image representation for Facebook and Twitter should you choose. For images, be sure to pay attention to the recommended sizes listed in the descriptions.

On-page Optimization

Title Tag

• Avoid duplicate title tags
• Keep title tags at 55 characters or less in length, including spaces.
• Your title tag should be written like this: Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
• Use a dash in between your keyword phrases and a pipe at the end before your brand name

Meta Description

• Write compelling meta descriptions (for CTR)
• 150 to 160 characters is the recommended length
• Avoid duplicate meta descriptions
• Do not use quotes or any non-alpha characters
• Use target keywords in the description

H1, H2, H3

• Use H1 Tag for Page title
• Use your keyword phrase once in your H1 tag
• Use H2, H3 tags for subheadings if there are multiple sections

Anchor Text

• When linking to another page on the same site from within content, select good anchor text (keywords) to use in the actual link and do this often. For example: “We offer *target keywords* services,” rather than “Click here.”

Image ALT tags and filenames

• Include your keyword phrase in the name of your image. Name all of your images in a way that describes what they are.
• Do not use non-alpha characters in your image or file names (no %, &, $, etc)

Footer Content

You can update the footer content by navigating to Widgets. Use the dropdowns under the "Footer Content" widget to find the content you would like to update. Once you have made the necessary updates, click Save.

Other Admin Capabilities

WordPress Users

Click Users in your dashboard to add and manage all users that have access to your website. In the Add New User section, create a username, enter their email and assign them a role. Learn more about the different roles in WordPress.

Navigation Menus

Navigate to the menu section of your dashboard. In the right column, there is a list of the current menu structure. If you would like to alter the current order of items listed, drag and then drop in the correct location. The left sidebar has a list of all the pages currently added on the site. Check the page you would like to add to the menu then click Add to Menu.

Click the drop-down arrow next to the name of the page to change how it will appear in the menu. Always have Main Menu and Mobile Menu checked in the “Menu Settings” section. You must click “Save Menu” for these changes to pull through on the live site. View WordPress's Codex for Menus for more information.

301 Redirects with EPS Redirects

Anytime you change a permalink, you should add a redirect in order to ensure visitors that have the old link saved, will still arrive at the page they are expecting. To access this, go to your EPS Redirects settings which can be found under Settings in your dashboard. You will also find easy-to-use import/export features to add and manage new and existing redirects.

Tracking Code Pixels

This allows for the collecting of user activity on the site. To access this, go to your Tracking Code Manager settings which can be found under Settings in your dashboard.

Facebook Pixel: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/952192354843755 Google Analytics: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008080?hl=en Google Tag Manager: https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/quickstart