Creating the structure and content
Before you start with the website’s design, it’s always recommended to make a diagram of the structure you want, even when it is a simple website like mine.
Posts & Pages
WordPress has two types of showing content: posts and pages. The difference between them is that a post is related to a date. The blog that you are reading now is a post. A page is not related to any date and is static, and typical examples are the about and contact pages.
My blog is the central point of my website
It’s obvious that photos on a photography website are the most important elements. But sometimes, I wanted to post an article that is not photo related. So I decided to start with a blog as the central point of my website.
Custom Posts & Fields
Besides my Blog I needed a Gallery. The gallery is also date related but is not part of my blog. So I created a custom post with the excellent Custom Post Type UI plug-in.
I didn’t want to go in the direction of a plain photo gallery to show all my work. A gallery with a lightbox pop-up was probably the fastest to develop but not the most efficient for search engines. With my gallery, I can give every photo its own post page; in that way, it’s easier for search engines to find my content. In addition to the photo, I wanted to show extra information. I needed some custom fields to handle all the extra data, like camera equipment, camera settings, audio samples, download fields etc. Luckily there are plug-ins for that in WordPress. I use Advanced Custom Fields Pro (ACF) to handle those fields. Oxygen Builder works very well with ACF!
A website requires other pages that describe or enhance the site, the obvious and classic ones are Home, About, Links and Contact. It all depends on what you want to show or tell your visitors!
To be continued…
