At WordCamp Orange County, I had a chance to talk with Bridget Willard. Bridget expressed her hatred towards me every time I give her an answer of “GOOGLE IT”. Every day since that WordCamp, I’ve thought about why I tell people to “GOOGLE IT”. I say this all the time at the Vegas WordPress Meetup group as well. After many months and thoughts, I’ve come to an answer. I say “GOOGLE IT”. I realized Google Built My Website.
What does that mean
Google Built My Website means I’ve spent countless numbers of hours Googling the answer to my WordPress questions. When it’s three in the morning, there’s hardly anyone online to ask a question. Also, The Advanced WordPress Group on Facebook didn’t exist. You can post a question on a support forum. It usually takes a few days to get a response. You can ask people at your local meetup. I highly recommend that. However, meetups are usually once a month. There’s also an agenda planned. So asking your question is hard to do. SO where do you turn? Google?
I’ve made myself available to all new WordPress users. Ask me anything and I’ll do my best to respond. I had help, and I want to be that outlet for others. Once again, I found most of my responses resulting in “GOOGLE IT”. After the 15th answer, I decided it was time to man up and become a better WordPress Role Model. That’s when I met Bridget Willard.
Bridget and I
I have the highest respect for Bridget. She comes from a world not related to WordPress. She dove in and started working for one of my favorite WordPress shops, WordImpress. Bridget is the first to admit she knows a lot about marketing and nothing about WordPress. Other than writing a post and publishing said post. I first appeared on WPBlab and I had a chance to talk with Bridget on a public forum. I made my points and I think she learned a lot.
Every time I’m on the show, I make it a point to teach Bridget something new. Even when she thinks there’s no more room in her brain. She learns something new. I taught her to view the page source and she went nuts. I think it’s safe to say, This was my first chance at becoming a better role model.
The phrase “Google It” used to sound like I was being a dick and didn’t want to help. I get it. That’s not the case. I said “Google It” because that’s what I did.
Being Specific Helps
Usually, when someone asks a question, there are immediate variables.
- What version of WordPress are you running?
- What theme is active?
- Who is the hosting company?
- How many plugins are installed?
- What version of the plugins are installed?
These variables will determine the answer I can give. If you ask me about Caching plugins, the hosting company matters. WPEngine won’t let you use a caching plugin. They do cache on their end of things. If someone asks me about a broken feature on their site, I start to think they have a plugin issue. Unless the tell me some things about their site, my answer can only be “Google It”.
This is a short explanation of why how Google Built My Website. If you want to see the full explanation, you should watch Episode 53 of WPBlab.
