WordPress has been around for years and has helped many bloggers create their own space. There are many aspiring bloggers that lack essential WordPress knowledge. This article provides tips for new and experienced WordPress users.
If your post has a lengthy title, make sure to adjust the permalink. For instance, “Ten Ways Smart Parents Can Tame Their Children” would come across as a cumbersome, long URL. To help shorten your permalink, use “tips-parents-unruly-kids.”
A clean permalink will make it easier to post blogs with long titles. To illustrate this, “The Best Banana Cream Pie Recipe Taught To Me By My Grandmother” would show as a very long URL that can be annoying to your readers. Be sure to select only the keywords from your long titles to create your permalinks.
When using WordPress, you can even add videos to your site. This will take a while, but the benefits are great. Visuals grab your readers’ attention. Videos can show things that words simply cannot, making them a powerful tool.
It is simple to add video to a site created with WordPress. Although this may take you some extra preparation, it is definitely worth it. Internet users are mainly visual. Videos can sometimes express more than written words, which can make them very powerful.
Remove any special characters in 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. It is also wise to make all URLs as short as possible. Only use the key words to avoid overwhelming those who visit your site.
Make a posting schedule for yourself. If you schedule when things must be posted, you’re more likely to actually post them. The schedule feature will also allow you to write several posts at once and have them uploaded at pre-selected times.
Do not automatically assume your changes were not retained when making adjustments to your site. That is usually 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 comments and content that don’t add anything to your website. That will help you to keep the site friendly to people who are looking at it. Akismet is one of the better plugins for filtering out spam.
Search engine ranks can be boosted with just a little more time spent while adding photos. Always add in title and alternate text tags. If someone pins you to Pinterest, for example, the title you put in will pop up.
Take special characters out of your URLs for your blog posts. This can make it hard for search engine spiders to search your site, so delete them. It is also wise to make all URLs as short as possible. Only use the key words to avoid overwhelming those who visit your site.
Improve upon the greeting you’ve put on your landing page. This will make everything a little more personal when it comes to the visitors you have because you can make your site have a message to talks about how users have found blogs like yours. It will also make things look more human and less robotic.
Create a charming greeting for your website. This makes your site more personal when trying to relate to the visitor. It personalizes the experience. Use WP Greet Box to do this.
Allow users to email your articles if they want to. This is crucial for sharing as well, because many users may lack Twitter or Facebook access on the job, but they may want to share those articles. WP-email plugins are a great way to accomplish this.
Ensure that it is possible for users to forward articles from your site to their email easily and at will. Not everyone has access to social media sites but may still desire to share your information with others. Set this up using a WP-Email plugin.
You shouldn’t pick a username such as “admin”. Having admin or administrator as your username makes your blog more likely to be successfully attacked by bots. This puts your site at risk. Go to your account page and delete usernames that are generic. Find creative user names that you can remember.
Make sure you maintain an organized media library. While uploading images randomly to the library is tempting, chaos can set in. Create folders designated for images at each step of the way. Just this simple move will make it much simpler to find (and use) photos in the future.
Make sure targeted titles and descriptors are always used. When prospective visitors use search engines to find your pages, these are among the first things they see. They are crucial to your site. Use Scribe (a form of SEO software) to control these items even more. This helps you edit these items on your pages to attract more visitors.
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. Optimized websites will almost always rank better than slow-running websites.
To link your blog posts on your blog or website, make use of a plugin that will allow you to do just that. With these plugins, up to five links appear following each post. These links are related to the tag relevance of the posts that appear on your site.
Make sure you have the most current WordPress on your website. Updates contain security patches that eliminate vulnerabilities. Hackers seek out older versions of WordPress to find a security crack. Install every update possible that you can.
As you search for plugins, make certain to read reviews. Remember, these plugins can be created by anyone who knows how to program. Don’t use plugins that are flawed and buggy. Plugins with several downloads and high ratings are usually safer.
Schedule your postings in advance of when you want to publish them. It is possible to have posts published at specified times, no matter where you happen to be. Look for the Publish box on the Edit screen. You’ll notice something that says “Publish immediately.” Insert military times. Also, make sure you include years, months, and days. Choose “O.K.”. Click on the ‘schedule’ button on the ‘schedule for’ screen to plan schedule your blog posts.
Does the clutter of WordPress bother you? Turn off some of the boxes that you see on the page. Look for “Screen Options” in the WordPress window to find them. In there, you’ll see a full menu of boxes that you can turn on and off.
You don’t have to manually approve comments anymore. Instead, use a plugin entitled Akismet. It is possible for you to receive an email whenever a comment is posted, but unchecking manual approval is the best course of action so that authors need not have their comments approved prior to posting. You won’t save yourself time.
Choose a host for WordPress with tools that allow WordPress to be installed easily. This saves you the frustration of creating a separate database yourself. Use a host that lets you create a blog domain and a database simultaneously.
Is it hard for you to stick to a posting schedule? You can write something in advance and schedule it to publish at the time and date of your choosing. You have the option to schedule a future posting when opening the new post page. This allows you to take care of things beforehand.
Use a variety of blog authoring tools. Are you not fond of the dashboard on WordPress? Try blog authoring applications that work well with WordPress. There are a variety of efficient WordPress-compatible tools. Experiment with different programs to find one that will work well for you.
Read user reviews of plugins. Anyone who can program can make their own plugin. You want to avoid downloading a plugin full of flaws and bugs. Plugins with a lot of downloads and high ratings are generally safe to use.
Highlight any comments the author makes to a blog post. Many people note concerns or pose questions through the comment section. It’s easy for comments to be overlooked if there are many other comments. Highlight the author’s comments as a different color. Using this method will make the comment section easier to read.
Allow visitors to comment on your posts. You will foster a feeling of connectedness, and give yourself insight about your readership. Plugins allow you to approve particular comments before they show up online, so spammers and advertisers are not a problem.
Don’t forget about the “Read More” option. Nobody wants to see a wall of text on your main page. Show your visitors a “read more” link that they can click. If they can’t, your blog might look messy and unwelcoming.
Blog Authoring
Be sure to add images to your sites. It is said that a picture’s sometimes worth a thousand words, and that holds true even on a blog. Your site will be 10 times more attractive. For your images, be sure to include the title and alt attribute so readers and search engines have better clarity.
Use a variety of blog authoring tools. Are there things about the WordPress dashboard that you don’t like? Blog authoring programs, such as Windows Live Writer, can be of help. There are a lot of tools outside of WordPress that work well with the platform and are very efficient. Give some of them a whirl, and discover the one that is most suitable for your needs.
Just because a plugin costs money does not mean you shouldn’t use it. Compare the value of your time to that of the plugin’s cost, and decide on the right approach. If you get lots of features for little money, it is a worthwhile expense.
Think about highlighting comments on an article that are made by the person who wrote the article. Comments are often filled with questions and concerns. It can be easy for responses to get lost in the sea of feedback. Make sure to highlight author commentary in a contrasting color. That way, these comments are easy to spot.
Before you build your site in WordPress, search for some resources that can help you. One thing you can do is look for good social media forums where you can get your questions answered. The community can help you with questions around a theme, a plugin or any other WordPress related issues.
Remember that you can add a “Read More” button. If your front page is covered with text, it can turn off readers. Visitors can click “Read More” if they choose. Not doing this could cause the blog to appear messy and overwhelming.
Use the Export option included with WordPress to keep your site backed up regularly. In this way, you will always have a clean reference point to return to in case you have problems with your server or your site is hacked.
Just because a plugin costs money, does not mean that you shouldn’t give it a try. Think about how much time the plugin will save you. If it provides you with many helpful features at an affordable price, it is likely to be worth your while to make the investment in it in order to have time to devote to other things.
When using WordPress EXPORT function, be sure to backup your files and images. To do this, log into the control panel or with FTP, and then copy all folders.
WordPress has become popular because it is an efficient way to create a blog that provides useful, informative content. By familiarizing yourself with the capabilities of WordPress, you can quickly post content to your blog. The preceding information will be invaluable to those trying to start a great blog.
Do not download a WordPress upgrade without thinking about the plugins you are using. Make sure that you have the latest in plugins before continuing testing. If you do not, some tools and plugins might stop working.