WebPT (WordPress)

Headed architecture and development, enhancing web solutions.

Not only did the aesthetic and layout change, but I also restructured the data structure. One of the problems I encountered early on was that the publication process was time-consuming and had numerous human touchpoints. The team wrote the posts in Google Sheets, which is great for collaboration. However, they would then copy and paste the content into the WordPress admin interface and hand-code much of the HTML for the page. This was an obvious pain point for the entire team.

To address this issue, I developed a solution. I separated the components of existing blog posts into their own data types. For instance, a blog post would contain tags, a title, authors, illustrators, a call to action, related posts, and an excerpt. By separating these sections into distinct data types, I improved efficiency.

Now, instead of the blog post publisher having to type in the author’s name to give them credit, they could select an author from a list. This list of authors is a separate data type associated with the blog post, rather than being part of the post itself. Although it may seem like a minor change, it is a significant one. With this new structure, if an author’s title changes from “Content Specialist” to “Content Manager,” it can be automatically updated for all the posts they have written.

Developed custom themes, saving costs and reducing workload

I created this website using a custom theme built with the latest technology from 2019, and it has proven to be a reliable workhorse. It included all the necessary functionality without any unnecessary extras. Off-the-shelf themes often come with numerous options that can be difficult to manage or expand upon, but this theme was both simple and powerful. I wrote the code using WordPress best practices, which I often discuss. This made it easy to build upon and straightforward for new developers to understand if needed. Additionally, I developed a plugin for WebPT-specific functionality, enabling me to modify the website’s appearance and feel without compromising any of its core functions.

Led server consolidation, reducing costs by 80%

Initially, this website was hosted internally, which gave the company complete control but came at a high cost. The site was then moved to Pagely, but that option was too expensive for our needs. Eventually, I explored other options and decided that WP Engine was the best choice for this website. I managed to host this site, along with about ten others. Some were for internal use, while others were public-facing, but all of them were hosted at a cost that was less than one-third of what we paid for Pagely.

Improved audit scores, driving data-driven decisions

I was able to leverage Google Tag Manager on this site. I moved all of the marketing and tracking scripts to GTM to have only one location to manage them all. It freed up a lot of coding overhead by doing so. I could teach the team how to use the Tag Manager service, and it really empowered them.

Led SEO teams through record growth years

I managed a team of SEO professionals throughout the development and ongoing maintenance of a WordPress theme. I adopted a meticulous approach to presenting data in HTML, ensuring it was easily readable by search engines. It’s essential to acknowledge that while humans can infer a great deal of information from a website, robots are not yet capable of doing so. By creating metadata, I was able to clearly communicate the purpose of each page to search engines.

I also utilized Yoast SEO for much of this process. At that time, however, I needed to extend the JSON-LD data produced by Yoast. By leveraging WordPress hooks and filters, I was able to add more informative data to what was displayed on the page. Once this functionality was implemented, every page received the same rich treatment, and it worked flawlessly.

Led Content teams through new processes that enhanced brand authority across all domains, especially webpt.com

One aspect of this website that I was particularly proud of was how I transformed the publication process for our already talented content team. Not only did I streamline many procedures, but I also automated several tasks, allowing technology to handle them for us.

For our webinars, we had a two-part lead funnel: the signup before the event and the follow-up after it. The initial part involved users signing up to attend the webinar, while the second part provided attendees with access to the recording and slides afterward.

I developed a system that could detect when the webinar started. If a user arrived on the page before the webinar, they were presented with a signup form. If the webinar had already taken place, they were shown a different form to access the slides and a link to the recording.

This automated process replaced what used to require about ten hours of manual work each month, significantly improving efficiency.