WordPress is sometimes tricky when you initially use it for content creation. You may begin to feel overwhelmed by all the possibilities and simply give up on starting you new blog. You don’t want to look like a novice, so use all of the information provided here.
Spend some time learning about the tools and features WordPress offers bloggers. 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. Using this will help you better manage any formatting issues.
If you have a long title on a post, be sure to clean up your permalink. Use only the most important keywords so that your URL isn’t too cumbersome. You can simply shorten that to include only the keywords.
Make sure that you learn all you are able about WordPress before even installing it. Adequate planning will save you time in the long run. Experiment with different plugins, research search engine optimization and learn how to write original, effective content to make using WordPress easier.
Familiarize yourself with the options and tools available 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. Using this will help you better manage any formatting issues.
Remove any special characters in the URLs of your blog posts. Their presence can cause problems for the search engine spiders, so omitting them entirely is your best bet. Keep your URL’s short and to the point.
Alt and Title are two important things to know about. This allows you to add words to your images. This area is going to let you put in some great SEO keywords within your content, and they also let viewers see what you have on the site when they can’t access images.
You may invest lots of time editing your WordPress site only to get the idea that none of it was saved. If changes are not being saved, there is probably a different problem. Try solving this problem by clearing the browser cache. Try pressing and holding “shift” while refreshing to view your changes.
It is easy to use WordPress to add video blogging to the website. Spending a little extra time preparing your website will save you time in the long run. Many users want to see videos. A video can clearly convey a message that is hard to explain with the written word; this makes video a powerful marketing tool.
You can help your site’s rank on the search engines by simply taking a few minutes when adding images to your site. Never forget to include a title and the alt attribute. When visitors “pin” something on Pinterest, the title you used is exactly what will show on their screen.
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.
Users should be able to send your articles via e-mail easily. This is crucial for sharing purposes. Visitors may not have access to sites like Twitter or Facebook at work and need a way of sharing your article with others. WordPress has a plugin for email sharing.
You might believe that WordPress has not saved all of the changes you just struggled to make. If changes are not being saved, there is probably a different problem. Clear the browser cache to see if it helps. Press and keep holding the Shift key as you refresh your browser, and you should then see your changes.
Avoid common words and phrases for your user name. This will make your site vulnerable to bots that want to attack it. This poses a real threat to security. Go to your page of users and remove usernames that say “admin” or “adminstrator”. Use another username.
Do you posts garner lots of comments? It can be hard to look through all of them, for yourself and others. Add a plugin that will add page numbers to this section. It will make your site more organized.
Titles and targeted descriptions are important. These are some of the first items that your prospective audience sees when finding your pages via search engines. This makes them critically important. Use Scribe, from SEO software, to exert greater control over this on WordPress created sites. This will allow you to edit the items and, in turn, attract more visitors.
Create a charming greeting for your website. This allows you to communicate better with your audience. In this way, your page will seem more human, and it will be accessible via the plugin called WP Greet Box.
Make sure that you have the most recent version of any WordPress plugins you use. WordPress plugins are great for adding versatility to your site. But like anything else related to the computer, updates are necessary. If you fail to update your plugins, you may miss key upgrades and the plugin may even stop working completely.
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. The WP-Email plugin is great for this.
Don’t download an excessive amount of plugins. While they can be very valuable, they also have a tendency to make your load time much longer. They can really slow things down, and that can impact how you rank with search engines. Slower sites don’t usually rank as well as those that are faster.
Organize your media library and keep it that way. It can become really chaotic if you are constantly uploading images directly to your library. Instead, create folders and place your images in the appropriate folders. You’ll be able to find what you need much more quickly.
Check that you are using the most up to date WordPress version on your site. Updates often contain security patches which eliminate any vulnerabilities. If you use an older WordPress version, it opens your site up to attacks of malware. So, to keep your site secure, always install WordPress updates.
Keep your plugins updated. These are a great tool that will make your website more powerful. They need to stay updated at all times to ensure that you don’t have any trouble. If you don’t make sure you have the latest version, you may not be getting as much as possible out of the plugin.
Schedule your postings in advance of when you want to publish them. You can schedule them to auto-post any time you like, even if you’re away from your computer. Visit the “Edit” screen, and find the box for “Publish.” 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. Choose “O.K.”. Check mark the “schedule for” option, and then hit the schedule button if it is correct.
Make sure you have just the minimum number of WordPress plugins you need. The more you have, the more time it will take for your site to load. A slower website could also negatively impact your search engine rankings. Slower sites don’t usually rank as well as those that are faster.
Approving comments manually is an outdated practice. Akismet is great for this. Make sure that “manual approval” does not have a check mark beside it so that the comments go up automatically. Pre-approving every post can consume large amounts of your time.
Make sure you’re always using the most recent WordPress version you can. Updates often contain security patches which eliminate any vulnerabilities. Malware is often able to infiltrate WordPress sites that do not have the latest updates. Install all updates WordPress offers in order to ensure the best security.
Are you having a hard time posting at designated times? You could write your content in advance and just specify the day and time of posting. Once you have any new post page open, look for the choice to set a publication in the future. You can write your posts without worrying about remembering to post them.
Approving comments manually is a thing of the past. Install Akismet or something similar to do this for you. 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 be saving any time if you do not.
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 down the CTRL button, followed by a number ranging from one to six. If you frequently use headers, this saves lots of time.
Do not use the drop-down menu to find a post header. Keyboard shortcuts are much quicker. Using the numbers keys 1 through six with CTRL shows your options. This is a much quicker way of doing things.
Always look at user reviews before using plugins. Remember, these plugins can be created by anyone who knows how to program. If a plugin has a lot of flaws and bugs reported, don’t use it. Plugins with several downloads and high ratings are usually safer.
Have you had enough of the clutter involved in WordPress? Toggle off the homepage boxes you don’t need. To do this, utilize the button called “Screen Options” located atop the WordPress window. Select it for a drop-down menu that lets you switch on or off boxes you want visible.
Make sure to pick a WordPress host that allows you to click a button in order to install it. This will save you a lot of hassle from having to create your own database separately. The host should be able to create your blog domain and its associated database through that one simple click.
You should allow visitors to post comments on your site. This builds a community and gives you more information about your readers. You can use plugins that filter out spam and allow you to moderate comments before they are published.
Let your WordPress sites allow comments to be posted. This builds a sense of togetherness, and it also allows you to know a bit more about your traffic. There are plugins available so that you can approve comments before they appear on the site, so you don’t have to worry about advertisers and spammers.
Think about using the highlight feature for author comments. People frequently express concerns or ask questions in blog comment sections. When you respond to these questions, they can sometimes be overlooked. Make sure to highlight author commentary in a contrasting color. This will make it easy to spot them.
Draft an outline of your potential site before you attempt to create it with WordPress. Write down everything you’d like your website to do and what visitors would enjoy finding. Do this and you’ll save time trying to add the things you forgot later.
You can always add “Read More” buttons. Visitors to your blog do not want to be confronted with a vast block of text. Show your visitors a “read more” link that they can click. You don’t want your landing page to appear cluttered and messy.
You can always add “Read More” buttons. Visitors aren’t going to want to dive into lengthy text right off the bat. Show your visitors a “read more” link that they can click. Not doing this could cause the blog to appear messy and overwhelming.
Make good use of images when you blog. The old saying that pictures are worth a thousand words holds true today. Your own blog can have just that much more oomph. Use alternate text and title tags appropriately when describing the picture to provide clarity for readers as well as search engines.
Plugins that aren’t free can be useful, too. Think about the value of your time, and compare the plugin’s cost to it. If you feel that you are getting a lot for the price, it may be worth it.
There are many things to learn when it comes to WordPress. You will be an improved blogger by using the tips above. After getting sufficient practice, you can quickly go through your posts.
The export function comes in quite handy when you want to back up everything you created on WordPress. Doing so provides you with a number of backups of your site that you can retrieve in case your server dies or your site is hacked.