WordPress can be quite tricky when it comes to publishing blog entries. If you have a hard time getting used to it, it is easy to feel overwhelmed or give up. Avoid looking like an amateur blogger, and keep reading for some helpful tips!
If your blog post includes a long title, adjust your permalink. For instance: “Ways Parent Can Control Their kids” is too long. Try using just the keywords for the best results.
Be sure to choose a design that is not the same as those chosen by others who have WordPress sites. You may be tempted to do this because it’s a time saver, but your site will just look run of the mill. It is imperative to make a site that highlights your individuality and the personality of your business.
It is easy to use video blogging on your WordPress site. Spending a little extra time preparing your website will save you time in the long run. Many users want to see videos. People enjoy videos, and a video that explains things well can grab their attention faster than words can.
Put in some time to get to know all of WordPress’ bells and whistles. For example, “KITCHEN SINK” gives you more format options on posts. Your admin pages will also have a “SCREEN OPTIONS” tab. You will see many formatting items under your control.
You might find one day that you think you’ve made a lot of changes to your blog that haven’t been saved. This is probably not true. Clear the browser cache to avoid this issue. Your changes will appear by simply pressing and holding the “shift” key and refreshing the browser simultaneously.
The Title and Alt keys are helpful to know. Use your Title and Alt. text tags when you use images in blog posts. This will give you more space to use for SEO phrases. Additionally, it will help viewers whose images are turned off know what is on the page.
Do you posts garner lots of comments? If this is the case, it can be hard to sort through them all. You can install a simple plugin that will put page numbers into this section. This will make the whole process much smoother.
Have a plan before you begin publishing. You will increase your motivation if you know exactly how long it’s been since your last post. You can site during a day and make posts for the entire week, and then you can schedule WordPress to post them for you.
Make sure targeted titles and descriptors are always used. These will be the first things your audience sees when discovering your blog via a search engine. Because of this, they are extremely critical. Use Scribe (a form of SEO software) to control these items even more. It allows you to edit these parts of your pages to get even more traffic.
Any comment that isn’t on topic or doesn’t make sense should be deleted. That way, the site stays suitable for the interested folks who read it. An excellent plugin that can aid you in removing spam from your site on a daily basis is Akismet.
Always organize your media library. If you just upload images randomly it’ll get out of control and disorganized. Create a folder structure when you begin and place images into the folders properly. If you’d like to use an image again, you can find it easily.
Omit special characters from the URLs of your blog posts. They give search engines difficulty when they are spidering your site, so try to eliminate them altogether. Keep your URL’s short and to the point.
Do not use an old version of WordPress. With each update, new security patches are rolled out. Using older versions will make your site susceptible to spyware attacks. To keep your site secure, use the newest version of WordPress.
Unless you change it, posts will appear chronologically. You can change the order of this list by changing the dates on your blog posts. To do this, open a post so that you can see its date near the top-right. Click on date, modify it and save the post so you can change the position.
Don’t forget to back up your blog. It’s important to back your blog up regularly. The WordPress plugin Xcloner can make this task easier. Back your website up in at least 2 places. It would be disastrous to lose your whole blog.
At the very top of your WordPress page, create a catchy greeting for your visitors. This helps your visitors feel more welcome and interested, and the messages can be personalized depending on how the visitor got there. Your webpage will be less automatic looking, and will be accessible via the Greet Box plugin.
No one manually approves comment any longer. Akismet is great for this. You can save time by getting e-mail alerts when comments are posted and unchecking manual approval. You won’t save yourself time.
Use titles and descriptions that have targeted keywords. These are the first impressions that your readers see. Because of this, they are extremely critical. In order to customize them to your needs, Scribe, which is SEO software, can help. This helps you edit these items on your pages to attract more visitors.
Does the clutter of WordPress bother you? Look at the page and turn off a few of the boxes. Look for “Screen Options” in the WordPress window to find them. Click it and you’ll get a drop-down menu which allows you to click off (or on) the boxes that you want.
Make sure to always organize your media library. Uploading images without thinking of organization can cause havoc to your site. You should start with a simple folder structure and go from there. You will discover that it simplifies finding images when you need them.
When seeking a place to host your WordPress blog, find one that allows you to install WordPress by clicking one button. This will help you save the trouble of creating a separate database. The host should be able to create your blog domain and its associated database through that one simple click.
Make sure that you have the most recent version of any WordPress plugins you use. Plugins can add a lot to your site; they have many unique features. However, they receive updates just like normal applications. Failing to maintain current updates may cause you to miss important changes that keep the plugin working well.
Your WordPress site should have comments enabled. You will foster a feeling of connectedness, and give yourself insight about your readership. You can make it so that the only comments that show up are ones you approve, in case you’re worried about spam.
Don’t install more WordPress plugins that you will be using. Although plugins can be beneficial, too many can slow down your site’s load time. This has a negative affect on your traffic and your search engine rankings. Websites that run slow aren’t ranked as highly.
Give various website posting tools a shot. Are you unsatisfied with WordPress’s dashboard? Consider using a blog writing program such as Windows Live Writer. Lots of tools can work well in conjunction with WordPress in this way. Try several of them. Find one that works for you.
Keep a back up of your blog. This has to be done regularly. There are some WordPress plugins available for this purpose, such as Xcloner. Your choice of backup website or plugin is at your discretion, but be sure you do more than one backup location. It would truly be difficult to start from scratch if your blog disappeared one day.
Highlight your own comments. Sometimes, the comments section becomes a place to ask questions. Don’t let your response to a question get lost. To make them stand out, highlight your responses. Finding them will be much easier this way.
Connect your posts by utilizing internal linking plugins. This provides your readers with additional content to peruse while visiting your site. Plugins like that usually ad links following each blog post, basing that on your tagged posts.
Make a plan for your WordPress site before you make it. Write down what you wish to accomplish with your blog and how you think visitors will want to use 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.
Do you want to be able to post without issues? Write your posts beforehand, and have them automatically posted at a certain time or on a specific day. Whenever you open up a new post page, you will see the option to set up a future publication. That way, you can write things in advance and post them later.
Incorporate images on your site. Remember that many people only look at the pictures and never read the words. This gives your site more pizazz. Also use alternate text and title tags when describing the pictures to help search engines crawl your site.
Read user reviews and feedback of plugins while searching for them. Anyone with programming knowledge can make a plugin. You do not want to use a plugin that has many reported bugs and flaws. As well, if you see lots of reviews and downloads, it’s likely safe to download.
While a plugin may not be free, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try it. Think about whether the plugin is a good value given the time it may save you. If it is rich in features, paying a little bit is still worth your money by saving you time.
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. Let visitors see more content if they like. If they can’t, your blog might look messy and unwelcoming.
Keep in mind the fact that you do not have to do every bit of your website work on your own. If possible, consider doing all you can to spread out the work.
Just because a plugin costs money, does not mean that you shouldn’t give it a try. Think about how long it will take you to make something like that; then, compare it to the cost. If it’s cheap and gives you tons of features, it may be worth the price.
Prior to thinking about what you want your WordPress site to look like, take the time to find help resources. Find blogs and forums where you can get advice and ask questions. Regardless of what your question is, you should be able to find the answer.
Use an identical second database if you would like to test changes without messing with the live site itself. This will keep any mistakes from ruining your entire site or hampering your sales.
Keep in mind that you can utilize your search engine optimization key phrases throughout your site through use of tags and categories. The fact remains that distinct category names might just be exactly what folks seek when looking on Google. For example, “best plugins for WordPress” or “WordPress beginner tips” might have brought you to this page!
You do not have to do it all yourself. You can hire someone or get a volunteer to take care of some of the tech work so that you don’t go through a lot of trial and error.
Utilize WordPress’ Export function to give your site a regular backup. This create your historical database of backups that let you return to a recent back up or clean copy should you get hacked of if the server dies.
You cannot learn everything about WordPress immediately, but you sure have a great start. Apply what you’ve learned to improve your blog. If you practice, you’re going to blaze through posts more quickly then you imagine.
Always backup any images or other files before exporting from WordPress. You can log into FTP and copy the folders and the content.