Getting started with your new website can feel overwhelming – this page lists a number of resources, tools, and articles to help you as you build out and optimize your site.
LinkedIn Learning
How to Access LinkedIn Learning at UNI – If you’re having trouble accessing LinkedIn Learning, read this troubleshooting guide.
WordPress
Common WordPress Issues – Information if your UNI WordPress site has issues
WordPress.org – The main WordPress site.
WordPress Codex – The online manual for WordPress.
WordPress Themes – Find free themes here.
WordPress 5 Essential Training – LinkedIn Learning course
WordPress: Full Site Editing – LinkedIn Learning course on the new block-based themes
Copyright Issues in Blogging
Fair Use
A description of the fair use doctrine from the US Copyright Office.
12 Ways To Ensure You’re Legally Using Online Photos
Be certain that the images you are using for your blog are legal to use.
Copyright Fair Use and Online Images
Written by an attorney.
You CAN Get Sued For Using Photos You Don’t Own on Your Blog
A cautionary tale from a blogger who got sued for publishing a single copyrighted image she found on Google Images
SEO
Google Search Central
Resources to make your website discoverable to Google Search.
Google: Beginner’s Guide to SEO
A guide to SEO practices from Google.
Moz – Beginner’s Guide to SEO
An in-depth guide to search engine optimization by SEO software provider Moz.
WordPress SEO – LinkedIn Learning Course
Google Search Console – a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results.
Social Media Optimization
Open Graph Protocol
Enables any web page to become a rich object in a social graph.
Facebook Sharing Debugger
Enter a URL to see how Facebook “views” that page as a social object.
Twitter Analytics
Twitter’s internal tool to provide metrics for activity and engagement
Legal Sources of Stock Photography
These sites offer images that are free to use on blogs (Some images may have some usage restrictions such as attribution).
Pexels
“Best free stock photos in one place”
Unsplash
“Beautiful free photos – The world’s most generous community of photographers.”
Pixabay
“Stunning free images & royalty free stock shared by our talented community”
Flickr Creative Commons
Search through Flickr users who have offered their photos and images under a Creative Commons license.
Wikimedia Commons
A database of 14 million freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.
Google Images – Advanced Search Option
Scroll down and select “free to use or share” option in the usage rights dropdown menu
everystockphoto
A search engine for free photos
FreeFoto.com
Collection of free photographs.
Design Tools
Canva
Canva is a free tool to create promotional designs for your blog (header images) or social media posts. No design skills needed – select from predesigned templates and customize as needed. Invaluable!
Pablo
A Canva-like tool from the folks at Buffer.
Site Tools
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Is your blog loading slowly? Find out why by using this tool to diagnose any problems with load time.
Test Your Mobile Speed
A Google product to see how mobile-friendly your site is.