Most folks who do any blogging at all know something about WordPress. However, far too many of them don’t understand what it is capable of. This article will teach you more about this great platform.
Make sure you choose a unique design instead of the same one as everyone else. You may be tempted to do this because it’s a time saver, but your site will just look run of the mill. Make sure your blog emphasizes your individuality.
It is easy to use WordPress to add video blogging to the website. While you may need to prepare a little more, that makes things worth it. Many internet users enjoy visuals. Videos can sometimes express more than written words, which can make them very powerful.
If there’s a post with a title that’s long, make sure you clean your permalink up. Using too many words will make a clunky URL. Be sure to select only the keywords from your long titles to create your permalinks.
When it is time to begin posting, set up a schedule. A schedule helps you keep your eye on the deadline; so as the deadline approaches, it may give you more incentive to write that piece. You could write a lot of posts at once and then use the WordPress scheduling feature to post them for you.
It is easy to use WordPress to add video blogging to the website. This will require you to spend more time prepping, but this is worth it. Internet users are mainly visual. Using video is a powerful tool because it allows you to express your thoughts visually.
If you have a lot of comments and other content that is not adding value, delete it. This will make your website fresh and professional. Easily clean up any spam on your website with the Akismet plugin.
Make a schedule when you wish to start posting. You will feel motivated to post regularly if you have a good schedule. Actually, you can write all the posts for a week in one sitting and then use WordPress’s schedule feature to upload the posts at the appointed time.
There may be times when you devote hours to your WordPress blog only to believe that you neglected to save your changes. It is probably not the truth. Clearing the cache can help solve this. You should see the changes by pressing shift and refreshing the browser.
Clean everything that adds no value to your site, such as extraneous comments and content. In this way, your site will be inviting and comfortable for your users. Akismet is a great plugin that you can include that will help you to filter out the daily spam on your site.
Do you get many comments on your posts? If this is the case, it can be hard to sort through them all. Use a plugin to add page numbers. This makes for easier navigation and a more organized site.
Get rid of special characters in the URLs of your WordPress blog posts. Special characters make it more difficult for search engines to index your site. Your URLs should also be shortened to just include keywords, so they do not overwhelm your visitors.
Search engine ranks can be boosted with just a little more time spent while adding photos. Use the title tags and alternate tags to include keywords. Your title will show up if someone “pins” that image to Pinterest.
Do your posts get comments from lots of people? If that’s the case, it may be hard for you or your visitors to sift through those numerous comments. Simply create pages by adding a plugin for that purpose. That is going to help your site seem organized, and it will be much easier to navigate.
Allow users to email your articles if they want to. This allows your readers to share an articles with their friends and also to save a copy for themselves. The WP-Email plugin is great for this.
Search engine ranks can be boosted with just a little more time spent while adding photos. Make sure to use alternate text and title tags. If your readers “pin” you on Pinterest, that title will automatically show on their screen.
Never use the term “admin” or anything similar for your username. Having admin or administrator as your username makes your blog more likely to be successfully attacked by bots. This is a risk to the security of your site. Look at your users page and delete any usernames that are “admin” or “administrator”. Find creative user names that you can remember.
Create the best greeting for the top of your WordPress website. A good greeting is more intimate for visitors and can relate to how this visitor found your blog. Access this option using the WordPress Greet Box plugin as it helps make your visitors’ experience less impersonal.
Use titles and descriptions that have targeted keywords. Search engines direct web traffic to these pages first. Therefore, they are crucial to your site. Scribe is a good kind of SEO software you can use to gain control over this. This will increase the traffic to your site.
Don’t choose a common term, such as “admin,” for your username. The more simple your user name, the easier it is for your site to be hacked. This is a huge security risk. Go through your users page, and erase any such usernames. Select another username.
Keep the plugins at a minimum. Excessive plugins will slow down your computer and lead to wasted time. A slower website could also negatively impact your search engine rankings. Slower sites don’t usually rank as well as those that are faster.
Make sure you titles and descriptions targeted. When prospective visitors use search engines to find your pages, these are among the first things they see. They are crucial to your site. Scribe is search engine optimization software that can help you control these aspects of your WordPress site. You can edit such items to boost visitor counts.
Nobody wants to manually approve comments anymore. Install Akismet or something similar to do this for you. Make sure that “manual approval” does not have a check mark beside it so that the comments go up automatically. This will end up saving you quite a lot of time.
Only install the necessary plugins that you need. While they can be very valuable, they also have a tendency to make your load time much longer. 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.
Don’t use the drop-down menu when you are selecting a header. Keyboard shortcuts are much quicker. Press CTRL then 1-6 to select different options. This shortcut can save a lot of time when working with headers.
If you want to post on off-days, schedule them a few days before via 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. Look for the Publish box on the Edit screen. Beneath this, you should see the words, “Publish Immediately.” Set the times in military time and the day, month and year you want to post it. When the correct time and date are on your screen, select ‘ok’. Check the Schedule For screen and choose Schedule.
Do you have too much going on with the functions in WordPress? Turn off some of the boxes that you see on the page. Just go to SCREEN OPTIONS in the upper portion of the window. Click it and you’ll get a drop-down menu which allows you to click off (or on) the boxes that you want.
Highlighting can come in handy, particularly when you are making note of an author’s comments. Sometimes, the comments section becomes a place to ask questions. It is easy to lose track of important information. You should use a different font color for the author’s comments. It will be easy for visitors to recognize the responses.
Let readers comment on your blog. This will cultivate a community and it will give you an idea on the type of visitors that your site is attracting. You can get plugins that allow you to filter content from others.
Draft an outline of your potential site before you attempt to create it with WordPress. List the goals of your website and what you hope your readers will gain from your site. This will help you build a site that fulfills your objectives instead of having to add stuff later to get it right.
Blog Authoring
Use pictures on your website. Picture can tell a lot about the information that you are trying to convey. Your own blog can have just that much more oomph. You must use image tags in order to make your images accessible to the search engines.
Use a variety of tools for blog authoring. Are you not a fan of the WordPress dashboard? Try a blog authoring program like Windows Live Writer. WordPress is compatible with a variety of tools that make it more efficient. Give a couple of them a try to figure out which one is most effective for you.
Even though a plugin isn’t free doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth using. Think about whether the plugin is a good value given the time it may save you. The features offered are worth the price that you pay.
Highlight any comments the author makes to a blog post. The comment section is where people ask any questions they might have. When you respond to these questions, they can sometimes be overlooked. Use a different color, and bold or italicize the text. This makes them easier to see.
If you would like to do work on your website without making live changes, copy your blog to another folder and work on it there. This way, you can test out changes without risking the health of the existing site.
Make a plan for your WordPress site before you make it. List what you would like to include on the site and the information that your visitors would enjoy reading about. This gives you some direction on what type of content to include.
It’s not necessary for you to do all your site work alone. If you can recruit a volunteer or hire someone who has the skill to do the work, you will save time and money in the long run.
Remember that you can add a “Read More” button. Visitors to your blog do not want to be confronted with a vast block of text. The “Read More” option gives visitors the opportunity to continue reading the posts they find most interesting. Not doing this makes your blog look cluttered.
It is possible to place a post in a holding area if the post is not yet ready to be posted. You can make changes on it that the public cannot see during this time. Publish the posts you’re wanting to make after you’ve made sure it’s a good piece of content.
Make sure to place images on your website. Remember that many people only look at the pictures and never read the words. This will add a bit of drama to your site. Search Engines and readers alike will appreciate your use of alternate text tags and titles.
Remember that categories and tags will let you use SEO keywords throughout your site. In fact, good category names could just be what others want to get when they’re doing a Google search. For instance, things like “WordPress for Beginners” and “WordPress Must-have Plugins” will be very attractive to those wanting to learn.
Some paid plugins may be worth your time. Think about whether the plugin is a good value given the time it may save you. 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.
Use the Export option included with WordPress to keep your site backed up regularly. This allows you to ensure that you always have access to your past blog posts while giving you the opportunity to clean up anything that gets hacked.
This platform isn’t new and many bloggers have some form of experience using it in the last few years. Still, many people aren’t using it the way that it was intended to be used. Hopefully, this piece has provided you the keys to becoming a satisfied WordPress user.
You can utilize “read more” links in order to shorten pages on your site. Place this link where you can easily break up text and entice the reader to click on it. Readers who want to click through to the rest of the information are likely to remain on your site for a longer time.