Help & Guides

Everything you need to
get started.

Step-by-step guides for agencies setting up and managing their portal, and for clients getting the most from their project view.

Agency guides

Setting up and managing your portal

Guides for web agencies using Expressive Portal to manage client projects.

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Setting up your first project
Get a new client project live in under 10 minutes.
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1
Go to Projects
From the main dashboard, click the blue “+ New Project” button in the top-right corner.
2
Fill in the project details
Enter the client name, project title, website URL and project type (SEO or Web). Set start and end dates if known, or tick “Ongoing”. Add a total project value if you want invoice tracking.
3
Choose a colour
Pick a colour for this project — it appears throughout the portal to help you identify the project at a glance.
4
Save the project
Click “Create Project”. The project card will appear on your dashboard immediately.
5
Add phases and activities
Click into the project, go to the Timeline tab, and click “+ Phase”. Add phases for each major stage, then expand each phase and add activities — the individual tasks within it.
6
Next step
See the Inviting your client guide below to give your client access to their portal.
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Managing phases and activities day-to-day
Keep your project moving and clients informed in real time.
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1
Updating activity status
In the Dashboard or Timeline tab, click the coloured status pill on any activity to cycle it through To Do → In Progress → Done. Changes save instantly and your client sees the update immediately.
2
Editing an activity
Click the pencil icon on any activity row to open the edit modal. Here you can update the title, status, and add a rich text description with formatting, lists and links.
3
Adding phase descriptions
Click “Edit Phase” on the phase header to add a formatted description. This appears in the expanded phase card and on the Timeline, giving clients context for each stage.
4
Adding milestones
In the Timeline tab, click “+ Milestone” to add a key date or deliverable. Milestones appear as markers on the timeline separate from phases.
5
Tracking overall progress
The progress bar on each phase fills automatically as activities are marked Done. The overall project progress bar in the header updates in real time.
6
Keeping notes
Use the Notes tab for internal or client-facing notes. Notes are separate from activity descriptions and are useful for meeting summaries and decisions.
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Inviting your client to their portal
Give your client secure, scoped access to see their project.
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1
Create a client user
From the WordPress admin, go to Users and create a new user with the role set to “Client”. Use the client’s email address.
2
Assign them to the project
When creating the user, select the project you want them to access. A client user only ever sees their own assigned project.
3
Set their login credentials
Give the client a temporary password. They can change this after their first login from their account settings.
4
Send them the portal URL
Send the client the portal URL along with their email and password. The URL is your WordPress site followed by the client portal page path.
5
Control what they see
In the project settings, use the client visibility toggles to show or hide specific tabs — Timeline, Files, Invoices, Notes and Analytics are all individually controllable.
6
First login experience
On first login the client sees their project dashboard with a personalised greeting and their project progress at a glance.
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Installing the Companion plugin
Push live WooCommerce orders, traffic and form data to the portal.
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1
Download the Companion plugin
The ED Portal Companion plugin ZIP is available from your portal admin area. Download it to your computer.
2
Install on the client site
In the client’s WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Select the ZIP, click Install Now, then Activate.
3
Get the API key
In your portal, open the project and go to Settings. Find and copy the Companion API Key for this project.
4
Configure the plugin
In the client’s WordPress admin, go to Settings → ED Portal Companion. Paste in the Portal URL and the API Key, then click Save.
5
Test the connection
Click “Test Connection”. A green tick confirms the plugin is talking to the portal successfully.
6
Data starts flowing
Within minutes, WooCommerce orders, page views and form submissions will start appearing in the Conversions and Journeys tabs of the project.
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Understanding SEO and PageSpeed data
Read your client’s performance data and share it clearly.
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1
Connect Google Search Console
In the project SEO tab, click “Connect Search Console” and authorise with Google. Ranking data starts populating within 24 hours.
2
Reading the rankings table
The SEO Tracker tab shows keyword rankings, positions, and week-on-week changes. Green arrows mean improvements, red means drops.
3
PageSpeed scores
The Vitals tab shows Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed scores for mobile and desktop. Above 90 is green, 50–89 is amber, below 50 is red.
4
The site audit
The Auditor tab crawls the website and surfaces technical issues by severity — critical, warnings and notices. Use this to prioritise technical SEO fixes.
5
Generating a PDF report
Go to the Reports tab and click “Generate Report”. The report includes rankings, PageSpeed, traffic, audit summary and recommendations. Download or email it directly to the client.
6
What clients see
Clients with the Analytics tab enabled see a simplified view of their traffic and rankings. Their data updates automatically — no manual input needed.
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