Help with a personal web site...

[Davek0974]

I've put this in this section because although it's web related it's most certainly not business related

I have a personal web site/blog that I dumped all my old site data on from when I used to play with DreamWeaver and actual html pages It's now a Wordpress site. I did add some stuff to it a while back but gave up simply because I don't really like the theme but also have no idea of something better.

https://davekearley.co.uk/

My quest, being retired now, is to spruce it up a little and add some more stuff.

Can anyone suggest a suitable free WP theme that would be better than the "Mantra" one I used. I particularly dislike the navigation method on the right - it's too hard to see all the topics on there etc, basically a terrible site

Thanks in advance
Dave

 

[fisicx]

Dave, just go to appearance > themes > add new and there are thousands to choose from.

you want one without a sidebar. Look at the one in my signature for an example of what I mean.

 

[Davek0974]

Dave, just go to appearance > themes > add new and there are thousands to choose from.

you want one without a sidebar. Look at the one in my signature for an example of what I mean.

Thank fisicx, how's things

Looking at your Tradesman theme, it's very nice as usual , If the lower pictures could be the 'categories' in my 'posts' pages it would even work for me, as before, it's clean and lean, I like that.

I have been looking at WP themes for some hours now, hence my post requesting help

It would also need to be able to be installed as-is - I really don't want to the whole "dev-site" route as the traffic is so low it will not matter if the site is off for some time or keeps changing every 10 minutes, as long as no data is lost and in the end it works

 

[Ozzy]

I think all themes you can install via WP don’t need any dev. You click the Install button and the little server pixies do it by magic, and then you just tweak and change colours and words through the Theme config menu.
Even I can do it, I setup my daughters, my wife’s and my own website that way and I haven’t written code in more than 10 years (started out on Dreamweaver myself!)

 

[Davek0974]

I think all themes you can install via WP don’t need any dev. You click the Install button and the little server pixies do it by magic, and then you just tweak and change colours and words through the Theme config menu.
Even I can do it, I setup my daughters, my wife’s and my own website that way and I haven’t written code in more than 10 years (started out on Dreamweaver myself!)

Yep i'm fine with that, but how to find a suitable theme first??

I think I want something with a "categories" image grid on the front page, these then jump to the posts relative only to that category etc. It would be visual indexing I guess.

Trouble is I can't see anything yet that will do that, once found, I should be good to go I think.

 

[Ozzy]

Personally I'd say they can all do that, depending how much you want to edit the theme options. If you're looking for a specific structure you may need to pay a bit, but if you willing to compromise then you get free or just a few quid.

https://molly-ann.co.uk >> Theme called Oxigeno
https://thefairyboutique.co.uk >> Theme called Gift Shop
http://www.richardosborne.co.uk >> Theme called Megatron (although just seen the Slider is skewed)

Each of those themes came with pre-configured sample designs/layouts. So I just had to pick one of the demo installs and then change the text and pictures.

 

[Davek0974]

Thanks,
Gift Shop seems to match what I have in mind, If those front page images are categories/image then it will work I think

 

[Ozzy]

I just used GIMP to create those images from her product photos and used the standard "image" tools of WP insert an image and make it a clickable link to a relevant page. if that's all you're after you don't even need to source a theme to achieve that.

 

[Davek0974]

I just used GIMP to create those images from her product photos and used the standard "image" tools of WP insert an image and make it a clickable link to a relevant page. if that's all you're after you don't even need to source a theme to achieve that.

Sort of makes sense

All my categories have a category image, I would want those categories grid-listed on front page and then click through to the posts in that category only.

I'm not sure how I do that

Simple image click yes but click to a category group?

Maybe I'm just not seeing the simplicity yet?

 

[Ozzy]

Simple image click yes but click to a category group?

This depends on how you manage the categories;
My advice, set the site up in Wordpress first and get everything where you want it - ignoring wanting to build those big images for now, just use a basic menu. Then when you have everything structuring where you want it, start building you image grid menu from images.

 

[Davek0974]

This depends on how you manage the categories;
My advice, set the site up in Wordpress first and get everything where you want it - ignoring wanting to build those big images for now, just use a basic menu. Then when you have everything structuring where you want it, start building you image grid menu from images.

I think thats half the trouble - I have no real idea of how to display what I have in user friendly or even clear way.

All I have is some categories with a picture on each, a big heap of posts related to those categories and not much else.

I can imagine the home page with a grid of category pictures and the category description for each topic but thats about it, no idea how to create that or where they should link to in a readable format. Each post is fairly picture heavy as well.

I'm very rusty at this and was never much good before

 

[fisicx]

Dave, those images on the homepage can be posts, pages and categories. There are lots of ways to configure a site.

 

[Davek0974]

Dave, those images on the homepage can be posts, pages and categories. There are lots of ways to configure a site.

I'll have an install and play, as my data already exists, would i run the auto setup or skip that bit??

 

[fisicx]

Skip and dismiss you don’t need it.

Give me a call and I’ll explain how to do the categories.

 

[Davek0974]

Skip and dismiss you don’t need it.

Give me a call and I’ll explain how to do the categories.

Ok, thanks.

I'm out now, will call tomorrow if thats ok or Monday if not - please let me know.


Dave

 

[Davek0974]

Ok, with help from and thanks to fisicx, I now have an embryo site layout I like and is a million times better than what I had before.

I'm still learning and know how important SEO is for a business or retail site, but although its pretty unimportant for my personal site/archive, I'm wondering if anyone could throw in some pointers..

Each post or page has two fields - "SEO Title" and "SEO description" along with the page title, what might go in these boxes for a page like this....

https://davekearley.co.uk/games-room-build/

If anyone could throw a couple of examples, it would be appreciated and would help me grasp what could be used elsewhere.

Many thanks
Dave

 

[fisicx]

The title is the link in blue you see on google.

The description is bit underneath.

The title needs to tell google what the page is all about: “building a games room in a suburban semi”

The description expands on this “Photo gallery of how I built a games room using bits of wood and some dodgy electrics with a bit of Dulux slapped on the walls”.

If you don’t set these up google will just use the post/page title and pick a suitable paragraph off the page for the description.

 

[Davek0974]

Thanks fisicx, that makes it a lot clearer.

Dulux? way too expensive

 

[DavidWH]

Hello from a fellow air gunner ?

Website looks good, I was reading your about page, the print machinery sounds like fun. I bought a Dell Server and set up a file server in 2014 for our little print business, it's still going strong and I've only completed erased it once ? the backup routine worked!

 

[Davek0974]

Hello from a fellow air gunner ?

Website looks good, I was reading your about page, the print machinery sounds like fun. I bought a Dell Server and set up a file server in 2014 for our little print business, it's still going strong and I've only completed erased it once ? the backup routine worked!

Rule No1 - always have a backup plan in place

I miss the machinery some days.

 

[Davek0974]

Just been digging through my Wordfence logs and see that someone at Amazon Web Services "AWS" has been banging at my door 75 times in the last day - Wordfence has them blocked but I also see that they have been trying to log in using my real log-in user name !

How do you change the admin user name in WP?

Does it matter?

The password is extremely long/obscure so pretty safe.

 

[Davek0974]

In Wordpress media manager, is there a way or plugin that will allow the files to be placed into folders ?

Something that will not mess up any links or filenames etc???

 

[fisicx]

Why do you need them in folders?

This might work but is it really worth the effort:

Media Library Folders

Easier file and folder management for WordPress Media Library for Galleries and Albums

wordpress.org

 

[Davek0974]

Why do you need them in folders?

This might work but is it really worth the effort:

Media Library Folders

Easier file and folder management for WordPress Media Library for Galleries and Albums

wordpress.org

Simply so i can find them easier - i only have around 500 now but i have many projects to add that will bump it up to maybe 1500+

I just stumbled on plugin "FileBird" seems ok ?

 

[fisicx]

Never used it so no idea if it will work for you.

I solve the problem by resizing, compressing and naming images before upload. Might be worth sorting out your existing images now to save a whole load of pain later.

And the media library already tells you where the images are used and which are unattached.