Dear WordPress Pupil,

At Big Sea, we work with businesses big and small for which WordPress is an ideal content management solution. We’ve established the following processes to help our clients make the most of their websites:

1. During the wireframing process, we indicate which sections of the site will be editable through WordPress, so clients don’t assume they can change everything. We use color-differentiation in our wireframes to show exactly what they’ll be able to change later.

2. We use custom post types liberally. Before WP version 3, we had to direct our clients to use categories and tags—or worse, plugins—to create content like employee profiles, testimonials, or locations. Now, we set up simple custom post types with appropriate names and our clients know exactly where to go to edit their Employees or Locations information.

3. We use Mark Jaquith’s WP Help plugin to provide screencasts and documentation. This simple plugin creates a custom post type that displays a Publishing Help tab under the Dashboard in the WordPress admin. We create short screencasts to walk through any custom features. We upload them to our Vimeo+ account and embed them in a post in the Publishing Help. This provides access to that refresher anytime the client needs it.

4. We record “general” screencasts that we can reuse for all clients. These cover basics like creating new posts, editing content in the visual editor, setting a featured image, and even best blogging practices.

5. We include documentation and a one-hour walk-through in every project proposal. We do the walk-through when the system is about 90 percent done, so the client can add content while we finish the design details that come with filling out the site’s actual content.

These steps take a little time up-front, but they save time, hassle, and frustration in the end. Arm your clients with as much help as you can, so they actually use their websites instead of letting them sit stagnant.

Andi Graham
bigseadesign.com | @BigSea