Customize the Sidekick for Mortgage Template

1

Add Client User

  1. Go to Users > Add New.
  2. Under “Add New User”, enter a username.
  3. Enter Email Address.
  4. Choose Role > Administrator.
  5. Check the box to skip the confirmation email.
  6. Once the user has been created, click the “Edit user” link in the confirmation message.
  7. Enter First Name and Last Name.
  8. Choose the first and last name in “Display name publicly as.”
  9. Click “Update User”.
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2

Change General Settings

  1. Go to Settings > General.
  2. Enter the client’s name for the site title.
  3. Enter [Target Area] Home Loans for the tagline.
  4. Make sure the “Email Address” is “[email protected]”.
  5. Change the timezone to the client’s timezone. Note: The cities to use are: Anchorage, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York.
  6. Click Save Changes.
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3

Customize the Home Page

  1. From the home page, click “Edit Page”.
  2. For the “Home Feature Modern” layout:
    1. Remove the home feature background image.
    2. Write a headline, choose an image, and select the Purchase, Refinance, and Apply Now pages.
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4

Customize Template Details

  1. From the website’s homepage, choose “Customize” in the Admin bar.
  2. Go through each section and enter the appropriate details. Here are some notes.
  3. When you are finished with all updates, click “Publish”.

TLC Settings

  1. Logos—make sure the logos are sized large enough to not be blurry
  2. Fonts—choose the fonts that most closely match the client’s brand.
  3. Brand Colors—make sure Color One (rgba) is entered in rgba format! For the CTA color, go to www.pinetools.com/darken-color, enter Color One, and use the 50 color on the right.
  4. Display Options
    1. Choose the Industry.
    2. Choose either the Simple or Complex menu. Simple is ONE menu. Complex has up to 6 menu spots.
    3. Choose the equal housing logo required by the company (for mortgage only).
    4. Choose the site’s footer.
      1. Map—has the map with the info on the right
      2. No Map—has the info on the left, social on the right, but no map.
      3. Social Only—has no info or map, only social logos centered.
    5. Check whether or not to display the 3 most recent blogs on the homepage.
    6. Check whether or not to include a locations link in the header.
    7. Upload or select a default featured image for pages without a featured image.
  5. Sitewide Info—only enter an individual NMLS # if this is a website for ONE person only.
  6. Tracking/API Codes—delete any GTM or Active Campaign codes here. They’ll be added when the website launches.

Menus

  1. For the Simple menu—use the “Primary Menu” menu position for this menu. Create a new menu called “Main Menu” and add all of the pages you want to in the menu.
  2. For the Complex menu—you can use up to six menu positions, and should use a minimum of three.
    1. The first menu position should be for the “Purchase” or “Buy” menu.
    2. The second menu position should be for the “Refinance” or “Sell” menu.
    3. The third menu position should be for the “About” menu.
  3. If the site is for an individual, change “Contact Us” to “Contact” and “About Us” to “About Me.”
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5

Change Post Author

  1. Go to Posts > All Posts.
  2. Select all posts.
  3. Choose Bulk Actions > Edit.
  4. Click Apply.
  5. In the “Author” dropdown, choose the client’s name.
  6. Click Update.
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6

Change Page Author

  1. Go to Pages > All Pages.
  2. Select all posts.
  3. Choose Bulk Actions > Edit.
  4. Click Apply.
  5. In the “Author” dropdown, choose the client’s name.
  6. Click Update.

Note: If the Pages Author is not displayed:

  1. Select Screen Options in the top-right hand corner.
  2. Check Author.
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7

Update Text on All Pages

  1. Go to Pages > All Pages.
  2. Open each page as instructed below and update the information as shown in each section.
  3. Only the following pages require any edits.

Page: Purchase Page & Refinance Page

  1. Change the name of the page to “Purchase a [Client’s Target Area] Home” and “Refinance a [Client’s Target Area] Home”.

Page: Licenses

  1. Change the first sentence to read correctly based on an individual or team site (I am vs We are).
  2. Paste state-specific licenses from Website Intake form.

Page: Your City Mortgage Blog

  1. Change the page title, replacing “your city” with the client’s target area from the Website Intake form.
  2. Make sure the page’s permalink is simply “blog”.

Page: Privacy Policy

  1. The company may have a company-specific privacy policy. If they do not, then change the contact information at the end of this page. If they do, you can delete this page.
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8

Loan Products

If the max loan amount isn’t standard, update all loan products to reflect higher amounts.

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9

Edit Forms

  1. Go to Forms > Forms.
  2. Hover over the “Contact Us” form, hover over “Settings”, and click “Notifications”.
  3. Hover over “Admin Notification” and click “Edit”.
  4. Update the following fields:
    1. Send to Email: enter the client’s email.
    2. From name: enter the client’s domain name.
    3. Subject and message: Text
  5. Click “Update Notification”.
  6. Go to Forms > Forms
  7. Hover over the “Subscribe to the Newsletter” form, hover over “Settings”, and click “Notifications”.
  8. Hover over “Admin Notification” and click “Edit”.
  9. Update the following fields:
    1. Send to Email: enter the client’s email.
    2. From name: enter the client’s domain name.
    3. Subject and message: Here (same as before)
  10. Click “Update Notification”.
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10

Replace Employees

  1. Select all dummy/old employees.
  2. Choose Bulk Actions > Move to Trash.
  3. Click Apply.
  4. Click Trash.
  5. Click Empty Trash.
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11

Replace Testimonials

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12

Replace Locations

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13

Add Google API Key

  1. Log into the “us” account.
  2. Go to: https://console.developers.google.com/
  3. Click on the project drop-down at the top left of the screen.
  4. Choose Top Left Creative as the organization and click on “Sidekick for Mortgage Themes”.
  5. Click “Credentials” on the left.
  6. Click “Create credentials” and then “API Key”.
  7. Click “Restrict Key”.
  8. In the name input, type the client’s name.
  9. Under Key restrictions, choose “HTTP referrers (web sites)“. 
  10. Type in the client’s website’s root domain (no http or https and no trailing slash, ex. carolflanagan.com), their wpengine domain (ex. carolflanagan.wpengine.com) and staging domain (ex. carolflanagan.staging.wpengine.com).
  11. Click Save.
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