Many people on the Internet have positive reviews for WordPress and the ease of use it provides. Unfortunately, there are many other potential users who still lack sufficient knowledge of the topic to get the results they desire. Read this article to figure out how to make WordPress a better experience.
Choose an interesting and unusual design for your WordPress blog. While using something that others already have up is simple, it doesn’t create a great first impression of your site. You want to get off on the right foot with your visitors.
Clean up long titles in the permalink. Extremely long URLs are usually made up of excessively descriptive titles. Rather, try to shorten permalinks while retaining the same meaning.
Learn about WordPress before you install it. Increased planning leads to a better executed blog. Familiarize yourself with search engine optimization, learn how to create content that’s effective and to maximize WordPress’s usage to ensure everything runs smoothly when you start working.
Be sure to make use of Title and Alt. text tags as you upload images for your posts. This is good for SEO, and it allows people who have disabled images to know what the images are about.
Remove unnecessary content and delete comments that fail to add value. This will help ensure that your site remains user-friendly. Akismet is a great plugin that you can include that will help you to filter out the daily spam on your site.
If you have a lot of comments and other content that is not adding value, delete it. Your visitors will appreciate your efforts. Trying using a plugin like Akismet to filter out spam.
You might work hard to alter your blog and erroneously believe that your changes have not been saved. This is most often not the case. Clearing the cache can help solve this. Try pressing and holding “shift” while refreshing to view your changes.
Special Characters
Unless you dictate differently, your posts always show up in a chronological order. First you must modify the date, then you can rearrange the list. First, open a post and locate the date in the upper right hand corner. Click right onto the date, make changes and then make sure you save your post so that the position is altered.
Don’t include any special characters in your URLS. Special characters make it more difficult for search engines to index your site. Use short URLs that don’t baffle and confuse your readers.
Do not make something such as “admin” your own username. Using a username like admin or administrator ups your chances of being hacked. This causes your blog to be at a security risk. Be sure to delete usernames containing “admin” or “administrator”. Find creative user names that you can remember.
You may sometimes devote much time in tweaking your blog in WordPress, and assume that your changes do not get saved regularly. This is probably not true. Clear your cache to see if it will fix the problem. If your depress the “shift” key while reloading your browser, the changes you made should show.
Never share your WordPress password. In addition to that, you need to get your plugins from reputable sites and you need to go over reviews prior to installing them. It just takes one instance of malware to mess up all your hard work.
Your posts appear chronologically by default; however, you can change this. Change the date if you want to rearrange the list. Do this by opening a post. You’ll see the date in the top right. Click right onto the date, make changes and then make sure you save your post so that the position is altered.
Maintain organization with your media from the start. Uploading images quickly is tempting, but this can turn into a huge mess. Create folders designated for images at each step of the way. You can then find pictures you wish to use later much easier.
Are your posts receiving a considerable number of comments? If you do, it may be hard to go through the comments for you and visitors. Use a plugin to insert page numbers in the comments area. This makes for a more organized site that is easier to navigate.
Don’t install more plugins than you need. Excessive plugins will slow down your computer and lead to wasted time. They can really slow things down, and that can impact how you rank with search engines. Websites that load slowly do not fare as well in the ranks as those that are optimized efficiently.
Help users easily send articles to you when they want. This is crucial for the purpose of sharing also, since many users might not have access to Twitter or Facebook at their job but may want to share with their friends your articles. WordPress has a plugin for email sharing.
Don’t forget to back up your blog. This must be a regular process for you. Xcloner is a wonderful WordPress plugin designed just for this purpose. Back up the blog however you wish, but be sure to do it in multiple locations. It would be terrible if you lost everything.
Security is something a WordPress site needs, and that’s why you need to keep passwords secret. In addition, be careful which plugins you download; you don’t want to inadvertently harm your computer. If your site ever gets hacked or infected with malware, you risk losing the entire thing.
Try scheduling your blog posts ahead of time in WordPress. This way, your posts will be published while you are doing other things. Find the Publish box on your Edit screen. You should then see a box that says “Publish immediately.” Change that so that it will change it to the time and date you want to publish it. Click OK. Check the “Schedule For” page and then hit “Schedule”.
Use descriptions that are very targeted. When prospective visitors use search engines to find your pages, these are among the first things they see. Therefore, they are quite important. You can use Scribe, which will help you control this on WordPress. This lets you edit pages to gain more readers.
You don’t have to manually approve comments anymore. Install Akismet or something similar to do this for you. It is possible for you to receive an email whenever a comment is posted, but unchecking manual approval is the best course of action so that authors need not have their comments approved prior to posting. Failing that, you won’t really save any time.
Minimize the number of WordPress plugins you use. Plugins are great, but each one slows your load time a little bit more. A slower website could also negatively impact your search engine rankings. Websites that perform better rank better.
You do not have to depend on a drop-down menu for headers. You should use keyboard shortcuts instead. Press CTRL then 1-6 to select different options. This is a great time saver if you like to use headers.
When searching for plugins, spend time reading through the reviews. Keep in mind that plugins can be developed by virtually anyone able to write programs. A plugin could be full of bugs and problems that could damage your computer. If a plugin has been downloaded a lot and has high ratings, it is probably a safe bet.
Read reviews of a plugin you want to use. Keep in mind that any programmer can make a plugin. You shouldn’t use plugins with a lot of reported flaws or bugs. Look for ones that have high ratings and have been heavily downloaded.
Is WordPress clutter bothering you? Turn off some of the boxes that you see on the page. Do this from ‘Screen Options’ near the top of your window. Click it and you’ll get a drop-down menu which allows you to click off (or on) the boxes that you want.
Does the clutter of WordPress bother you? Disable some of the options you see. Go to the “Screen Options” menu found at the very top of WordPress. When you click that, a menu will drop down with options to disable certain boxes.
Let people comment on your posts. This builds a community and gives you more information about your readers. If you are worried about spam or advertisers, you can find plugins that allow you to look over and approve the comments before they get published on your site.
If you are looking for a host for your WordPress blog, choose one that has installation tools that can install WordPress for your with just a click of a button. Using one of these tools will save you the trouble of creating your own individual database. Pushing just one button will allow you to get both your domain and database set up.
Try using different authoring tools for your blog. Are you not a fan of that dashboard on WordPress? Use something such as Windows Live Writer to help. There are many tools that are compatible with WordPress while being much more efficient. Try different ones to determine which works for you.
Keep in mind that it is possible to include the “Read More” button. It is a huge turn-off for a visitor to see a seemingly infinite amount of text when they arrive at the front page of your blog. The “Read More” option gives visitors the opportunity to continue reading the posts they find most interesting. If you do not do this, your blog will not look professional.
Before you start creating your WordPress site, draft a plan. List all that you wish to accomplish with your website along with what readers should get from it. This will help you build a blog that covers your needs rather than you trying to tack a lot of things on at a later date.
Plugins that aren’t free can be useful, too. Consider how much your time is worth and then compare that to the cost of the plugin. If it offers you a ton of features at a low cost, it’s worth it to pay the price to have more time on your hands.
Put images to work on your websites. A picture’s worth a thousand words. This makes your site far more dramatic. You must use image tags in order to make your images accessible to the search engines.
To work on sites and changes without live updates, copy it all to another identical database. This makes sure your main site won’t be changed if you mess up at all.
Some paid plugins may be worth your time. Think about how long it will take you to make something like that; then, compare it to the cost. It’s got many features at an affordable cost, so it is worth it to free up your time.
Don’t forget that it is not necessary for you to build your site all by yourself. If you brings someone else aboard, it will save you a lot of time and possibly money.
Use a duplicate database to experiment with changes and new plugins before making them a part of your original site. This prevents mistakes you might make in the process from costing you sales or keeping your site down.
Prior to thinking about what you want your WordPress site to look like, take the time to find help resources. Look for groups and forums to advise you on navigating through WordPress issues. No matter what your concern, you will be able to find assistance.
Look for all of the advice you can get before building a WordPress site. For instance, look to WordPress forums, blogs and groups online as a means to get the advice you need. Whether you have an issue with a plugin or a theme, they’ll be able to help you find the answers you seek.
If you have written something but are not ready to publish it yet, you should just leave it unpublished for the time being. You can still work on it to make changes, but it just will not be seen by the public. Only publish your work when you are completely satisfied with it.
If you aren’t ready to post something, keep it in the unpublished mode. In this way, you can work on them without others seeing your rough drafts. Don’t post it until you are completely happy with it.
Be mindful of the fact that you can use categories and tags to put SEO keywords into place on your site. In fact, descriptive category names are usually what people search for in Google. Examples such as, “Beginners tips for WordPress” or “great WordPress plugins” could be what brought you here.
WordPress has a great reputation because it is easy to use, instructive and full of useful features. WordPress should be easier to understand with the information from the above article. Why wait? Start your WordPress adventure right now!
Utilize WordPress’ Export function to give your site a regular backup. Having a backup allows you to easily recover your site in the event of a server error.