Are you worried that your WordPress blog does not get sufficient traffic? Do you want to launch a blog, but are worried about doing things properly? To have a successful blog, you must work hard and know what you are doing. You will find great ideas in this article that you can use.
Make sure to use both alt text and title tags. This allows you to add words to your images. Such areas provide a chance to add additional SEO phrases, and they show viewers who have not enabled images to see what they are missing.
Make sure you have a unique template for your WordPress blog. It may be very tempting to do so, but it can give visitors a bad impression. Create something that shows your unique flair.
It’s easy to incorporate videos on your blog with WordPress. This can involve a bit of a learning curve, but it is well worthwhile. Many users want to see videos. Videos are great at getting points across that words can miss.
Familiarize yourself with the options and tools available on WordPress. For instance, the button “kitchen sink” gives you a plethora of choices for formatting and importing content into your posts. Also check out “screen options” for admin functions. This can control many different formatting elements.
Make sure that you learn all you are able about WordPress before even installing it. The more you’re able to do in advance, the more you’ll be better prepared when you start. Experiment with different plugins, research search engine optimization and learn how to write original, effective content to make using WordPress easier.
Make sure you use Alt and Title. This adds searchable text to the posts. These areas allow you to add even more SEO key phrases to the content of your page, plus they allow viewers who have images turned off to know what they’re missing on your site.
Review your content for irrelevant material and remove it. This will make your website fresh and professional. An excellent plugin that can aid you in removing spam from your site on a daily basis is Akismet.
Prior to installing WordPress, find out as much as possible about the program. The more planning you do ahead of time, the better off you will be when you begin. Learn about SEO, creating effective content, and using WordPress and its many features to help ease your workflow.
Get rid of special characters from the URLs of your blog posts. They can give search engines a hassle when trying to spider your site, so it is best if you remove them completely. Your URLs should also be shortened to just include keywords, so they do not overwhelm your visitors.
Set a schedule when you’re ready to post. If you know when you have to post, you’ll be more motivated to get it done. You can site during a day and make posts for the entire week, and then you can schedule WordPress to post them for you.
Do not automatically assume your changes were not retained when making adjustments to your site. That is probably not the case. Clear your cache to see if that fixes the problem. Press your shift key, hold it, and refresh the browser. Changes should then be visible.
Clean up any unnecessary comments and content on your website. This makes your site user-friendly for people of integrity who visit it. Easily clean up any spam on your website with the Akismet plugin.
Your posts will be in chronological order, but you can change that if you want. Change the date if you want to rearrange the list. You can see the date when you open up a post. Change the date after clicking on it to get it moved from the original position.
Unless you dictate differently, your posts always show up in a chronological order. Rearrange your list by changing the date. In order to do that, open one of your posts and you will be able to see the date at the top right hand corner. Change the date by clicking on it, and be sure to save the post in the right order.
Do your posts get comments from lots of people? If you do, scanning through every comment can be hard on you and on your other readers. Add a plugin that will add page numbers to this section. Navigation will be significantly easier, and the site itself will appear far more organized.
If you spend more time on your pictures, your search engine ranking will increase. Use a title and also text tags. If someone uses Pinterest to pin your image, the title will be captured by the pin.
Make sure you have a unique greeting. You will be able to understand how your user located your blog, and this will provide your user with a more personal experience. Using a plugin like WP Greet Box will make your blog appear less robotic.
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’s why titles and descriptions are so important. Check out Scribe, which is an SEO software that gives you power on your site. You can use this to make edits on your pages in order to bring more visitors.
Be sure that your readers can forward your posts to their emails whenever they desire. This is important for sharing purposes as well, as many users may not be able to access Facebook or Twitter at work but may want to share your articles with friends. Use a WP-Email plugin to make this happen.
Take the time to update your plugins regularly. You can really improve your website with WordPress plugins. However, they receive updates just like normal applications. Make sure to install the updates so you can keep the plugin running smoothly.
Do not make something such as “admin” your own username. This can make you more susceptible to bots. Using these usernames can put your site at risk. Go to your page of users and remove usernames that say “admin” or “adminstrator”. Choose a new username.
Make sure you are always using the latest WordPress version. Updated versions will give you more security. Utilizing older versions leaves you vulnerable to malware. So, make sure you’re installing all updates that are rolled out.
Organize your media library. You can lose track of your files if you upload them into the library directly. Develop a system of folders so that things go where they should. This will make it easy to find images when you wish to use them again.
Don’t forget to back up your blog. This should be done on a regular basis. In WordPress, you can use a plugin for this, such as Xcloner. For added security, use plugins to make backup copies of your blog on several different locations. It would be terrible if you lost everything.
Make sure that your plugins remain up to date. You can really improve your website with WordPress plugins. Like other software, they are frequently updated. Your plugin might stop working or not work as well as it can if you stop updating it.
Schedule your posting times on WordPress. Have the articles posted at times when you are unable to post them. Locate the Edit screen, and find the Publish box. You’ll notice something that says “Publish immediately.” If you decide to schedule the publishing of your posts, you need to use military time. Click OK. Check mark the “schedule for” option, and then hit the schedule button if it is correct.
Try a linking plugin to help join your posts so that readers see a greater amount of content. Plugins like that usually ad links following each blog post, basing that on your tagged posts.
Approving comments manually is an outdated practice. Akismet is great for this. You’ll get emails when comments are made, but you can also uncheck manual approval. You are not actually saving time, otherwise.
If you want to post on off-days, schedule them a few days before via WordPress. You can set them at certain times, even when a computer is far from you. You can easily do this using the Publish command located on your Edit screen. Under that, you should see “Publish Immediately.” Input the military time, day, month, and year that you want your post to be published. Pick OK. Click on the ‘schedule’ button on the ‘schedule for’ screen to plan schedule your blog posts.
Is it hard for you to post at scheduled times? You could write your content in advance and just specify the day and time of posting. When you make a new post, you have the option to publish it at a future date. You can write your posts without worrying about remembering to post them.
Approving comments manually is very outdated. Akismet is a helpful plugin that you can use. You can get an email when a comment is made, but it is best to uncheck manual approval and authors having to have already-approved comments to post. You won’t save yourself time.
You do not have to depend on a drop-down menu for headers. Keyboard shortcuts are much quicker. To use, simply use CTRL and the numbers 1 through 6. If you use headers a lot, this can save you a ton of time.
There is no need to use the provided drop-down menu when choosing a header to use for your post. Use keyboard shortcuts instead. Press CTRL then 1-6 to select different options. For bloggers who always use headers, this shortcut saves a lot of time.
Allow comments on your WordPress site. This builds a sense of togetherness, and it also allows you to know a bit more about your traffic. Plugins are available to help you approve comments prior to having them published on the site, keeping it free from spammers.
Tired of the clutter on WordPress? Turn several of the boxes off to clear it up. Look for “Screen Options” in the WordPress window to find them. Click this and you will see a drop-down menu. This lets you choose the boxes you want to see.
Try using all kinds of authoring tools for blogs. What’s your opinion of the WordPress dashboard? Consider Windows Live Writer or another program that does blog authoring. There are a lot of tools outside of WordPress that work well with the platform and are very efficient. Try several of them. Find one that works for you.
There are a variety of blog authoring tools; check them all out. Have you had problems with the dashboard on WordPress? You could try a program such as Windows Live Writer. There are many tools that are compatible with WordPress while being much more efficient. Give some of them a whirl, and discover the one that is most suitable for your needs.
Consider adding a button labeled: Read More. If your front page is covered with text, it can turn off readers. Let visitors see more content if they like. Not doing this makes your blog look cluttered.
Use a duplicate database to experiment with changes and new plugins before making them a part of your original site. This will keep any mistakes from ruining your entire site or hampering your sales.
Plugins that cost something aren’t automatically not worth it. Consider the value of your own time, and stack it up against the price of a plugin. If it’s cheap and gives you tons of features, it may be worth the price.
Back up your WordPress site regularly basis using the Export function. That way, you will have a database of backups so that you will be able to access a clean version if you are the target of hackers or the victim of a failed server.
Now you know much more about WordPress. Apply what you have learned today. You will see your traffic increase immediately. Plus, users will love it more. Keep this bookmarked for your future reference. You will have a better site when you use these tips.
Remember to backup every image and file used on your site when you’re using the WordPress Export function. To do this, log onto the FTP server or control panel and then copy the folders there.