WordPress offers a lot, and that is why it is the most popular platform for blogging online. Use the tools that WordPress offers you to get creative with your blogs. Continue reading to discover how WordPress can improve your blogging.
Clean up long post titles as you construct the permalink. For instance, “101 Ways for Smart People to Manage Their Children” is way too long for a URL. Alter the permalink to include only the keywords.
Choose an interesting and unusual design for your WordPress blog. This may be tempting since it’s a time saver, but users will not be too impressed with your effort. Make a site that’s as unique as your business.
Become familiar with the options and tools that are at your disposal when you blog with WordPress. For example, clicking the Kitchen Sink will give you choices such as importing and formatting posts. This can help you control various formatting elements.
The Title and Alt keys are helpful to know. Use your Title and Alt. text tags when you use images in blog posts. This is good for SEO, and it allows people who have disabled images to know what the images are about.
It is relatively easy to include video blogging in your WordPress site. Although you may have to put in a little more time, you will get rewarded for your effort in the end. Many internet users enjoy visuals. Videos offer perspectives that written content cannot, so they are quite helpful.
Know as much as possible before you begin with WordPress. When you plan ahead, the better your site will be. Learn about SEO, creating content using plugins.
Be sure to learn all you can before you even install WordPress. Adequate planning will save you time in the long run. 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.
Make a schedule when you wish to start posting. 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. As a matter of fact, you can create your posts ahead of time and then use the WP scheduling feature to post them at specific times.
If there is content or comments that aren’t of value, remove them. This makes your site user-friendly for people of integrity who visit it. Akismet is a plugin that can be used to keep spam off your site.
Clean up comments and content that don’t add anything to your website. This makes your website more user-friendly. To get rid of spam on a daily basis, Akismet can be a useful plugin.
Remove special characters from your blog post URLs. Special characters annoy search engine spiders, so it’s best not to have any. Attempt to keep your URLs simple for visitors as well.
There may be times when you devote hours to your WordPress blog only to believe that you neglected to save your changes. There is an easy way to ensure your changes have been made. Try clearing your browser cache to solve this problem. Press your shift key, hold it, and refresh the browser. Changes should then be visible.
Do you have lots of comments? If so, going through all your comments might be tough for you and other people who are reading along. You can install a simple plugin that will put page numbers into this section. That will make navigation much easier and your site will appear more organized.
Make your greeting engaging on the top of your WordPress home page. This will put a personal touch to your site that you visitors will appreciate. It will also make things look more human and less robotic.
Your search engine ranking can be improved by taking a few moments to enhance your pictures when you upload them. Make sure to give titles, as well as alternate text tags. If your readers “pin” you on Pinterest, that title will automatically show on their screen.
Security is an important measure that you will want to consider. Keep your password to yourself. Your plugin choices should be from reputable sites. It just takes one instance of malware to mess up all your hard work.
Make sure you have a unique greeting. This will make your overall site look more aesthetically pleasing. This will make things look less robotic on your webpage and can be accessed with the WP Greet Box plugin.
Always keep your library of media organized. You might be tempted to simply put images right in, but you will find it gets cluttered fast. Set up folders right at the outset, and put images into the correct folders. Just this simple move will make it much simpler to find (and use) photos in the future.
Organize your media library. While putting a bunch of pictures right into the library might seem the way to go at first, that turns messy before you know it. You should start with a simple folder structure and go from there. This will make searching for a particular image much easier.
Make sure that your plugins remain up to date. It is possible to make your website more powerful by utilizing WordPress plugins. But like anything else related to the computer, updates are necessary. You must be sure to install updates so that you don’t miss important upgrades. Additionally, sometimes plugins stop working if they are not updated regularly.
Only use the most recent updated WordPress version available. Updates generally include security fixes that you will want to have. Utilizing older versions leaves you vulnerable to malware. Install all updates WordPress offers in order to ensure the best security.
Search Engine Rankings
Always back up your blog. Backing up your blog frequently is essential. The WordPress plugin Xcloner can make this task easier. Use whichever plugin or website you feel comfortable with to keep your blog backed up, however make sure you use more than a single location. It would be devastating to lose your whole blog.
Do not use more plugin installations in WordPress than you need. Although plugins can be a lot of fun, the reality is that web sites load slower with more plugins. This has a negative affect on your traffic and your search engine rankings. Optimized websites perform best in search engine rankings.
Internal linking plugins can connect posts and allow readers to view more content. These types of plugins add several links at the end of every post, depending on how relevant the tags of your posts are in your website.
Make sure you have the most current WordPress on your website. There are security patches included in updates that will eliminate any vulnerabilities. Hackers seek out older versions of WordPress to find a security crack. So, make sure you’re installing all updates that are rolled out.
Make sure that you write your blogs in advance. For posts already written, you can set them up to post on different days and times, even if you aren’t near your computer. Locate the Edit screen, and find the Publish box. Find ‘publish immediately’ under this. Next to it is a place to input time and date. Input your time in military format. Choose the OK option. You will see SCHEDULE FOR. If the schedule presented is correct, check it and click SCHEDULE.
Connect your posts with a plugin that internally links, so that your readers see more information to read on your website. Several links will be added to the end of each post. These links will be associated with the post that they are connected to.
Don’t use the drop-down header menu. Rather, use shortcuts on the keyboard. Press CTRL then 1-6 to select different options. This can save time if you frequently use headers.
Attempt scheduling blog posts in advance with WordPress. This allows you to post any time of the day, even when you’re not near a computer. The option to publish now or later is available under the edit screen in WordPress. You should then see a box that says “Publish immediately.” Enter the time you want the post published. This should include the day, month, and year. When the correct time and date are on your screen, select ‘ok’. When you spot your “schedule for” screen, select it and then hit “schedule” if things look right.
Are you sick of WordPress clutter? Turn off a few boxes that are on the page. You can do so via the “Screen Options” button at the top of the WordPress window. Click this option, which enables you to choose which boxes you want.
Approving comments manually is an outdated practice. Let Akismet handle that task for you. You have the ability to receive a message when a comment is left, but it is wiser to uncheck the manual approval options. Otherwise, you are not saving any time.
If you’re trying to find hosting for your blog, select a host with tools capable of installing WordPress with a simple click. Using one of these tools will save you the trouble of creating your own individual database. The host should be able to create your blog domain and its associated database through that one simple click.
Do you want to be able to post without issues? You could write your content in advance and just specify the day and time of posting. On the new post screen, you’ll notice that you can set it up to post on a later date. This can help you get it taken care of.
Keep in mind that it is possible to include the “Read More” button. Nobody wants to see huge walls of text on the landing page of a blog. Let visitors read more by clicking if they choose. If they can’t, your blog might look messy and unwelcoming.
Read user reviews prior to installing a plugin. Anyone with programming knowledge can make a plugin. It is not a great idea to use plugins that have many known issues. Highly rated plugins with lots of downloads are generally safe.
Incorporate images on your site. Pictures really are worth a thousand words. You will see that your site has a great deal more flair. For your images, be sure to include the title and alt attribute so readers and search engines have better clarity.
Let people comment on your posts. You will start to learn more about your regular visitors and your guests will also feel like they are joining a community. You can get plugins that allow you to filter content from others.
Plugins that cost money to download may still be of value. Compare the value of your time to that of the plugin’s cost, and decide on the right approach. There are so many features available, it is well worth the price.
Blog Authoring
WordPress offers an export function that regularly backs up your website. This will ensure that you have a historical database of site backups which allow you to go back in time to a clean copy if you are hacked, for example, or a recent backup if your server ends up dying.
Use a variety of blog authoring tools. Are you not a fan of the WordPress dashboard? Give an alternate blog authoring program a try, such as Windows Live Writer. Many more efficient tools which are WordPress compatible exist. Experiment with different programs to find one that will work well for you.
If you want only post summaries to show on your main page, you should use the link that says “read more” at the end of each post To decide where it should go, try to find a spot where text can be broken that will leave the reader wanting more. Readers who want to click through to the rest of the information are likely to remain on your site for a longer time.
There are many reasons why WordPress is used by so many people. As you can now see, it offers many possibilities. Understanding how to use WordPress the right way will be of great benefit to you. Use the techniques in this article to help you learn to use WordPress.
Remove excess plugins and themes you are not using to increase your security. There is always a chance that one of those items could develop a security flaw, and you might not remember they are installed if you are not using them. These leave your site vulnerable to code invasions.