WordPress is arguably the most widely-used blogging platform around, and offers tremendous utility. WordPress has tools and features that allow you to do tasks you never thought were possible on a simple blog page. Continue reading to learn how WordPress can work for you.
Don’t choose a design that looks like every other WordPress site. 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.
Become familiar with the tools available to use with WordPress. One great tool is: Kitchen Sink. It gives you may importing and formatting choices. Screen Options is another useful tool. It is possible to control a number of formatting elements with this.
If the title for a post is long, try cleaning up the permalink. Avoid cumbersome URLs like “The Ten Ways Intelligent Parents Manage Their Children.” Rather than writing that, have your permalink be “discipline-tips-children” or something similar that captures your keywords.
The title and Alt keys should be used. This lets you add text to your posts. This will allow you to incorporate more SEO phrases.
Try learning all the options and tools you can when you blog on WordPress. You will get more choices when you do this. It will make your posts different than others. You should also see a Screen Options on the Admin page. This can be used to control several formatting elements.
Moderate comments and content that add nothing of value to your blog. Your visitors will appreciate your efforts. A good plugin to include which can help filter daily spam on the site is Akismet.
Be sure to learn all you can before you even install WordPress. The more planning you do ahead of time, the better off you will be when you begin. Find out all you can about creating great content, powerful SEO strategies and the best way to work with WordPress to give yourself an advantage when you actual begin your work.
Posts are always shown chronologically, until you say otherwise. To change the list, you must change the dates. You can see the date when you open up a post. Click and change the date, then save the post. This changes where its position will be.
Get rid of extraneous characters from URLs. These characters can make things a real hassle. In addition, make sure the URLs aren’t too long; you don’t want anyone to be turned off by the length.
Do your posts get comments from lots of people? If they do, it is hard to go through all of the comments. Simply create pages by adding a plugin for that purpose. Not only will your blog look more organized, but it will also make navigation a lot easier.
Sometimes you spend hours changing your WordPress site, and then think that the changes have not been saved. That’s not necessarily the case. You can solve this by clearing the cache of your browser. Just press and hold your “shift” key while refreshing your browser and your changes should appear.
Ensure that users have the ability to email your posts to themselves. Not everyone has access to social media sites but may still desire to share your information with others. WordPress has an email plugin just for this purpose.
Improve the greeting at the top of the page on your WordPress website. That can be more personal for your visitors, since you can craft a message based on how they were able to find your blog. This is much less robotic, which makes things accessible through the plugin.
Make sure your media library isn’t too confusing. Uploading images straight into the library is certainly appealing, but it does not take long for chaos to set in. Place images into proper folders. You will be glad you did this when you are searching for a particular image at a later date, as it will be far easier to find it.
Be sure that your readers can forward your posts to their emails whenever they desire. This is important to promote exposure, since many readers cannot use social media sites at work. You can use the Email plugin in WordPress to do this.
Always update your plugins. These are a great tool that will make your website more powerful. But like anything else related to the computer, updates are necessary. Make sure to install the updates so you can keep the plugin running smoothly.
Your username should never be “admin” or anything similar. This will make your site vulnerable to bots that want to attack it. It puts your site’s security at risk. Look at the users of your site and delete any names that use admin or administrator. Select a different user name.
Don’t go overboard with installing too many WordPress plugins. Excessive plugins will slow down your computer and lead to wasted time. They can slow down your site to the point that will negatively affect your search engine rank. Websites that run slow aren’t ranked as highly.
Security is something a WordPress site needs, and that’s why you need to keep passwords secret. In addition to that, you need to get your plugins from reputable sites and you need to go over reviews prior to installing them. If your site is hacked or the victim of malware, your hard work could all be lost.
Connect the posts together with an internal-linking plugin to give your reader additional content on your website to enjoy. These plugins will add 3 to 5 links underneath each post according to the pertinence of tags on the posts of your site.
Always use targeted titles and descriptions. These details are often seen first by users who may be using a search engine to find blogs like yours. That also makes them the most important. Try uisng SEO software like Scribe on your WordPress website. With its help, you can edit this sort of item within your pages to make them more attractive.
Pre-schedule your posts using WordPress. For posts already written, you can set them up to post on different days and times, even if you aren’t near your computer. Find the ‘publish’ box under the edit options. There, you will find “publish immediately.” Input your times using military time, along with the days, months, and years. Press OK. When a screen appears for the “schedule for”, check it on and press “Schedule” if the info is correct.
Make sure that your media library isn’t disorganized. You can lose track of your files if you upload them into the library directly. Start out with a good system of folders and be sure to file your images correctly. Later, you will be able to find an image you want to use much easier.
Don’t manually approve every comment. Try using Akismet for this. You can receive an email every time someone makes a comment, but it’s better to have manual approval unchecked and authors with comments already approved to post. You won’t save yourself time.
Only install the plugins that you really need. When you add too many plugins, it can slow your website down. This has a negative affect on your traffic and your search engine rankings. Optimized websites perform best in search engine rankings.
You should allow visitors to post comments on your site. This allows you to interact better with the people accessing your site, evoking a sense of community. There are plugins that will require comment approval before they show up on your site. This will keep spammers and advertisers away.
Do not forget to create a backup of your blog. You need to back up your blog often. Xcloner is a great plugin to use with WordPress to do this. Use the plugin or site you’re confident in for blog backup, but be sure to backup in a lot of places. It would be very unfortunate if you lost your blog.
Blog Authoring
Do you find it difficult to post when you say you will or when you intend to? You can pre-schedule your content to post if you like. If you open a new post, there is an option for a future article. This means you should get started on everything ahead of schedule.
Blog authoring tools are very valuable. Are there things about the WordPress dashboard that you don’t like? Give an alternate blog authoring program a try, such as Windows Live Writer. WordPress can be used with a number of tools to increase efficiency. Give them a test run, and feel out which one works for you.
Do you hate how disorganized WordPress can be? Turn several of the boxes off to clear it up. Go to: Screen Options on the window. Clicking on it results in the appearance of a drop-down menu on which you can click boxes that you do or do not want to appear.
Highlight comments that are made by the post’s author. The comment section is where many readers will leave comments or questions. It can be far too easy to overlook such a question because it is lost in a group of others. Use another color to highlight comments from the author. You will be able to see them clearly and find them when you need to.
Before building a site on WordPress, put a plan together. List all that you wish to accomplish with your website along with what readers should get from it. This allows you to shape your website around your plans.
You have the ability to add a button to Read More. Not everybody wants to see a blog’s front page full of text. Visitors can click “Read More” if they choose. If they can’t, your blog might look messy and unwelcoming.
Don’t forget that you can always add a button that prompts users to “read more”. Visitors to your blog do not want to be confronted with a vast block of text. Let visitors read more by clicking if they want to. Not doing this can make your blog unappealing and rather uninviting.
Make sure your sites always have images. A picture’s worth a thousand words. Your site will possess added interest. Use alternate text and title tags with clear descriptions of each picture so that the search engines can crawl them.
Try using pictures on your websites. It’s true that images really have more impact than just words alone. Your site will be 10 times more attractive. Make picture descriptions with text tags so search engines have an easier time finding it.
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. If the price is low and it provides important features, it may be worth the cost in the time you are saved.
Prior to thinking about what you want your WordPress site to look like, take the time to find help resources. For instance, the Internet is rife with blogs, social media communities and forums dedicated to WordPress. The community can help you with questions around a theme, a plugin or any other WordPress related issues.
Do your research before planning your WordPress blog. There are forums, other blogs and even social medial groups that will give you an insider’s opinion and tips on WordPress. No matter what your problem, from themes to plug-ins, someone will surely have the ability to help you.
It is possible to place a post in a holding area if the post is not yet ready to be posted. That way, you can change it as you please and it stays out of view. Only publish them when you are complete satisfied with how they look.
If you have a post that is not quite ready to be published, you should hold it in an unpublished mode. That way, you can change it as you please and it stays out of view. Once your post is exactly the way you want it, you can publish it.
Utilize the “export” function to keep your site always backed up. Having a backup allows you to easily recover your site in the event of a server error.
There’s a good reason why WordPress is so popular. Clearly, WordPress has a wide variety of capabilities. Understanding how to use WordPress will make you a knowledgeable blogger. The information in this article can help you do just that.
Always backup any images or other files before exporting from WordPress. Log into your server control panel or FTP and copy the folders and their contents.