That’s right.  SEO suicide, right here on the Clerical Advantage website. I’ve been preaching for ages about the wonders of building your business website with WordPress and the added benefits and flexibility of combining that with the Headway Theme.  I’ve ranted about the great SEO value of using both and I did something that could have nixed all of that SEO goodness without even knowing it.

Embarrassing?  You betcha!

Luckily I got some expert advice from the one and only Michael Martine (aka Remarkablogger) and now not only is my site no longer suicidal, I can share with you what I did wrong so that you don’t make the same mistake.

Here’s the low down.

I’m an odd mix of tech geek and creative free spirit.  This means that I like to play around with graphics and design when it comes to my website.  Some people think it’s awesome; others don’t care for my ‘cutesy’ look.  Hey, it’s my party and… well, you know what I mean.  And while I do let that free spirit creativity loose on my websites, the tech geek side of me is much more businesslike and understands the importance of SEO.  So when I got the opportunity to ask the man I consider the SEO rock star about my home page here at Clerical Advantage, I jumped at the chance.

This is what he said:

Ugh! That’s the last thing you want one of your rock star idols to tell you right?  Well for me it was the absolute best thing he could have said. And this is why:

I had created graphics for everything on my home page, but there was no text.  Well, to be more specific, I had worked all of the text into the graphics, there was no real text on the page.  Big no-no.

So what’s a creative free spirit to do?

She listens to the expert and reworks those images into background images for text leafs*. She plays around with the font settings for her headers a little bit because with Headway she can, and she ends up with something that the tech geek side of her can be happy with too.

My home page still looks pretty much the same, but SEO wise it’s been given a new lease on life.  Not to mention that now I can link to more internal areas of the website in that text.  It’s one of those things like a V8… you whack yourself in the head and wonder why you didn’t think of it in the first place.

And now you know how close I came to committing SEO suicide and how to make sure you don’t do the same thing.

Pssst…. You may be wondering just how I managed to get access to Michael Martine to ask my question?  I took part in the Headway theme Twitter chat Wednesday night and he was the ‘guest’ answering questions about SEO.  Twitter is good for more than just tweeting your latest post, so take advantage of chats about the things you want to know more about, you might just get some great advice from one of your rock star idols.

Psst…psst… a leaf is one of the design building blocks you get to play with when you use the Headway Theme for WordPress.

Related Posts:

• I’ve Put Website On The Menu
• Blog SEO Made Easy
• Easy Footers and Sidebars with Headway

Today I wanted to post two more videos showing just how easy it is to create a site that you can customize for your business.

In the last video, I showed you just how simple it is to change colors, add a custom header and move the navigation around the page.

In the two videos below, I’ll demonstrate how quickly I can add a customized footer by using Headway leafs and adding widgets to your sidebar to further customize for your needs.

If you’ve found these videos helpful, you might also want to check out Headway Videos for lots of helpful tutorials for Headway.

Related Posts:

• What’s the Hoopla About Headway?
• How I Almost Committed SEO Suicide
• Why Do I use the Headway Theme for WordPress?

You might have heard about the Headway theme for WordPress?  It might even be the reason you ended up here on my website. But do you know why there’s been such a buzz about the premium theme?  It depends on who you talk to.  The visual editor, the ability to add ‘leafs’ to create a layout that fits your needs, the ability to customize a site without css coding are all reasons you’ll hear given.  But I think everyone will agree that regardless of what you want to accomplish, Headway makes it easy.

Check out the video below to see just how quickly you can give a site a truly custom look.

Questions?  Comments?  Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Or maybe you want to check out Headway for yourself?

Related Posts:

• Easy Footers and Sidebars with Headway
• How I Almost Committed SEO Suicide
• Why Do I use the Headway Theme for WordPress?

I did some work on a client blogsite yesterday. That in itself isn’t anything new, since a majority of my clients utilize my blogsite services on a regular basis. What was a bit different was the fact that my client’s site was using the Thesis theme.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve used Thesis on sites before. In fact, it used to be the theme I used on my own website. At that time, Thesis was really the easiest theme to customize with my own header, colors, etc.

And then along came Headway.

The Headway theme was (and still is) unlike any WordPress theme I’d ever used before. It allowed me to make major design changes to my site without tinkering with coding. The few items that did require changes to my coding were simple and fast. Needless to say, I switched to Headway. And many of my clients did as well.

So it’s been at least 6 months since I’ve done any customization on a site running the Thesis theme. Until yesterday.

Yesterday I did some customizations to a Thesis based site and I immediately realized something.

I’ve been spoiled by Headway.

Things like changing background colors, adding headers and moving components are all done quickly and easily through the Headway Visual Editor and I can see the results on the website immediately. Not so in Thesis.

Adding that type of customization to a Thesis site requires custom css coding. For a girly geek like me, that’s not so bad, and of course I was prepared for that. But what I had forgotten was how much time it required to make those coding changes.

Even as a girly geek, I don’t always get it right the first time I add code. Maybe something needs to be bigger or smaller, maybe the color doesn’t work. So each time I made a coding change in Thesis, I’d have to save, go look at the site and then go back and tweak the code if needed. What used to seem fast and easy just didn’t seem that way anymore.

Once again I was reminded of the reasons I switched to Headway in the first place. Ease of use, less of a need for custom coding and the ability to be endlessly flexible with the design of my pages. If you’re a ‘geek’ like me, that alone should be enought to convince you to try Headway.

But what if you’re not a geek? The real beauty of Headway is that it allows even novice WordPress users to get results that required custom css coding with other themes.

Just to be upfront, yes I am a Headway affiliate. But to be fair, I’m also a Thesis affiliate. So my theme favoritism isn’t based on monetary considerations in any way, shape or form.

Headway is my favorite not only because its what I consider to be the best WordPress theme available, it’s also unique in that it’s super user friendly.

Oh, and it’s a great way for new virtual assistants (or other businesses) to create their own professional looking site on their own. Check it out, I think you’ll agree with me.

Related Posts:

• How I Almost Committed SEO Suicide
• Easy Footers and Sidebars with Headway
• What’s the Hoopla About Headway?

Are you curious about what’s different and what’s the same about the Headway and Thesis WordPress themes?

I’ve had plenty of people ask me about both Thesis and Headway.

They know that I’ve used both for various blogsites, including this one.  So instead of answering one person at a time, I decided it might be time to write a special report.

My report gives a basic comparison of each when it comes to pricing, installation, updates, customization and support.

The cost of the report is less than the cost of a Venti coffee at your local Starbucks and it could help you decide which theme might work best for you.

For those of you that aren’t quite sure you want to shell out $2 bucks for the report, you can get the Venn diagram comparing the two themes for free.

And don’t worry, there will be a free update when the new versions of Thesis and Headway are released to the public for anyone that purchases the report now!

Click Here to get the Comparison Venn Diagram for FREE!

Click Here to Purchase The Complete Report for only $2.

Related Posts:

• Why Do I use the Headway Theme for WordPress?
• How I Almost Committed SEO Suicide
• Easy Footers and Sidebars with Headway