For more than a decade, WordPress has been an easy and efficient way to blog. However, many people don’t know much about WordPress outside of the basics. This article has been created to offer precisely that sort of knowledge.
Choose a unique design to make your site stand out from the competition. It can be tempting to do this since it saves lots of time, but it will not give users the best impression of you. You need to spend the time to create a design that evidences your own creativity.
Avoid designs that are commonplace. While copying someone else’s design is quick, it doesn’t make a good impression. You want to get off on the right foot with your visitors.
WordPress is full of options, features and tools that you can use to improve your blogging site. For instance, clicking on the visible Kitchen Sink button can offer more choices for formatting posts to make them more unique. There is also a Screen Options tab located on the admin pages of your site. Many formatting elements are managed in this fashion.
Become familiar with the options and tools that are at your disposal when you blog with WordPress. For instance, the button named kitchen sink gives you multiple formatting and importing options for your posts. There are some great options in the screen options as well. Use this section to change many of your formatting elements.
Set a schedule when you’re ready to post. You will be more motivated when you have a schedule. The schedule feature will also allow you to write several posts at once and have them uploaded at pre-selected times.
Use Alt and Title tags. When you are adding images to your posts, don’t forget to use titles and alt text. Both allow you to add more keywords to your page, which effectively increases your page rank.
Sometimes you might think some changes you’ve made weren’t saved. This isn’t always true. See if clearing the browser’s cache resolves the issue. You should see the changes by pressing shift and refreshing the browser.
Video blogging is easy with WordPress. Spending a little extra time preparing your website will save you time in the long run. Internet users are typically really visual. This can be a great tool to clarify what you want to say.
Do your posts attract a lot of comments? If so, weeding through all the comments may be difficult for you and for other visitors. Consider a page number plugin to simplify this. Navigation will be significantly easier, and the site itself will appear far more organized.
Make sure you learn everything you can prior to installing WordPress. The more prepared you are, the simpler the process of setting up your page will be. 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.
Optimizing the images that you upload to WordPress can give your site rank a boost. Use the alternate text and title tags on each one. Your title will show up when something is “pinned” on Pintrest.
Eliminate comments and content that fail to add value to your site. 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.
Keep your media library organized. Otherwise, the images can get jumbled together rapidly. Instead, make folders and organize your pictures that way. This will make searching for a particular image much easier.
Don’t include any special characters in your URLS. These characters can make things a real hassle. You should make your URLs shorter and only use keywords.
Keep your WordPress updated. With each update, new security patches are rolled out. Using an out of date WordPress version will leave your site vulnerable to malware attacks. Install all updates WordPress offers in order to ensure the best security.
Your posts will be in chronological order, but you can change that if you want. If you want to rearrange some posts, you will have to modify the date of your post. To do this, open a post so that you can see its date near the top-right. Click on the date, change it and then save your post in order to change its position.
Be sure you back up your blog. You need to to this with regularity. The WordPress plugin Xcloner can make this task easier. Back your website up in at least 2 places. Losing your entire blog would be unfortunate.
Are your posts receiving a considerable number of comments? If they do, it is hard to go through all of the comments. Use a plugin to add page numbers. Not only will your blog look more organized, but it will also make navigation a lot easier.
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. Just have a look at your EDIT screen. Here you will see the PUBLISH box. Beneath that, there will be an option labeled: Publish Immediately. Next to it is a place to input time and date. Input your time in military format. Choose OK. When the “Schedule For” screen comes up, check it, and hit “Schedule” if it’s correct.
Use titles and descriptions that are descriptive. These are a few of the things your readership will see first when using search engines. Don’t overlook the importance of this fact. Consider utilizing Scribe, the SEO software, on your WordPress-created site to provide you with additional control over these things. This allows you to attract additional viewers by editing the items that appear on your pages.
Nobody wants to manually approve comments anymore. Akismet is a helpful plugin that you can use. You have the ability to receive a message when a comment is left, but it is wiser to uncheck the manual approval options. If you don’t, you’re wasting time.
Always keep your library of media organized. Uploading images without thinking of organization can cause havoc to your site. Make sure to incorporate folder structures that allows you to categorize properly. Later on, when you want to reuse an image, it’ll make the search a whole lot easier to deal with.
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. If you frequently use headers, this can be time saver.
Keep your plugins updated. These are a great tool that will make your website more powerful. However, they receive updates just like normal applications. If you fail to update your plugins, you may miss key upgrades and the plugin may even stop working completely.
If you’re seeking a hosting company for you WordPress site, select one that has tools for easy installation. That way, you will avoid a great deal of trouble that comes with creating a database on your own. A good host will create a blog domain on your behalf and a database to go with it.
Try scheduling your blog posts ahead of time in WordPress. You can set them at certain times, even when a computer is far from you. Find the Publish box in the Edit screen. There, you will find “publish immediately.” Select the time and date you want it to be published. Select OK. When the dialog for schedule comes up, look it over and press “Schedule” if everything is correct.
Be sure to let people comment about your blog posts. People will feel more involved and you can learn about them as well. You can use plugins that filter out spam and allow you to moderate comments before they are published.
No one manually approves comment any longer. Install Akismet or something similar to do this for you. You can save time by getting e-mail alerts when comments are posted and unchecking manual approval. If you don’t, you’re wasting time.
Highlight your own comments. The comment section is where people ask any questions they might have. Answering these questions is easy to overlook in all of the comments. Highlight the author’s comments as a different color. You will be able to see them clearly and find them when you need to.
Rather than simply downloading a WordPress plugin as soon as you find it, look for reviews on that plugin first. It is possible for anyone with programming knowledge to create a plugin. If a plugin has a lot of flaws and bugs reported, don’t use it. A plugin that has numerous downloads and high ratings will probably be safe to use.
Be sure to use “Read More” buttons. 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. Let visitors click and read more. If you do not provide this, your website will not be user friendly.
Would you like to de-clutter WordPress to make things easier? Turn off some of the boxes that you see on the page. You can do this with the top WordPress button labeled “Screen Options.” Click that link to get a menu which helps you control which boxes appear.
Employ graphics in your sites. It is true that a picture can “say” so many things. Your own blog can have just that much more oomph. Be sure you use alternate text and title tags to explain your pictures so that the search engines and readers know what your picture is about.
Certain hosts allow you to install WordPress quickly and easily with a single click. That way, you will avoid a great deal of trouble that comes with creating a database on your own. With one click, the host can create the blog domain for you as well as the associated database.
If you want to work on your site without the changes being made live in order to test them, duplicate your blog in a second folder with a second, identical database. This keeps those changes from potentially damaging your entire site causing lost sales.
Think about having author comments highlighted on a blog. It’s very common for users to express opinions and ask questions in the comment section. Don’t let your response to a question get lost. You should use a different font color for the author’s comments. This will make them easier to find.
You don’t need to do everything on your website by yourself. 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.
Plugins that cost something aren’t automatically not worth it. Determine if it is worth using and then utilize it. It may be worth the price if it is going to free up a lot of time for you.
Search for helpful resources to help plan your site. You can seek out advice on forums concerning WordPress. These sites will help answer any questions you have concerning themes or plugins.
WordPress has a history of helping authors easily post their thoughts for the world to read. Learning more about WordPress is a great way to extract great results from blogging without spending every waking hour working on websites. Use the information above to get your blog up and running quickly.
Blog posts that are not ready for publishing can be retained in unpublished mode. Although the public won’t be able to view these posts, you can still edit them as necessary. Publish it when you have perfected it.