Want to learn more about running a site in WordPress? Has using the software overwhelmed you? Does the learning process daunt you? The tips in this article are here to help you get started with your site, so check them all out below and find out as much as possible.
If you plan to use WordPress for your site, you should only do so if you plan to have a responsive design. People access websites from all types of devices, and you want to make sure that any person who wants to view your site will be able to without any issues.
Improve the look and style of the footer on your wordpress website. This is very important as it is the first thing that your viewer will see. Include a short bio that includes all of your details or important links to what you want to get across.
Make sure that all of the information on your site is current. This is very important as viewers will tend to veer away from your site if it is outdated or points out very old information. Spend time each week getting rid of the antiquated material on your website to improve its appearance.
Set a publishing time for your blog posts. When editing an article for publication, you can select when it is published. It’s good to set regular updates for a specific date and time. To keep your blog up to date, put your blog posts in ahead of time and let WordPress post them to your blog for you.
Make the most of your titles and your descriptions. Any time you share posts on social media sites, a description and title may be required. These are important in terms of good search engine optimization, so don’t just toss out titles and descriptions randomly. Give it some thought and optimize with good keywords.
Clean up comments and content that is worthless to your site. Your visitors will appreciate your efforts. Akismet is one of the better plugins for filtering out spam.
Be sure to take special characters out of your blog post’s URLs. These characters can make things a real hassle. Use short URLs that don’t baffle and confuse your readers.
If you are new to WordPress, keep your sidebar simple. Make sure that it only has the essentials. Your visitors shouldn’t have to weed through many ads and banners to find the links they want to click on. Try removing the items in Appearance & Widgets that don’t contribute anything to your cause or business.
If your site has its gallery plugin, you cannot change the images sizes yourself. The gallery plugin automatically sets the sizes of the images, and you don’t have any control over this. If you need the image sizes changed, ask your developer to help you change the settings.
Using the most current version of WordPress is very important. Updates have security patches that eliminate vulnerabilities. Malware can often infiltrate WordPress sites that do not have the latest updates. Install all updates WordPress offers to ensure the best security.
Back up your content on your WordPress blog. Sure, WordPress is a very well-known and stable platform, but things still do go wrong from time to time. You don’t want to be caught without a content backup if something goes the wrong way. You can copy and paste your articles into Evernote or another notes platform.
If you want to put two images side by side, try using an invisible table in your WordPress post. You can create a one row/two column table via your post editor and then embed a photo into each cell. You could take the next step and add another row underneath to add captions below each photo.
The only way to learn WordPress is by practicing it. You can sign up for a free account on WordPress.com and start experimenting with its many features. Change images, background color, font sizes, etc. The more you get your hands on it, the more comfortable you feel about using it.
Make use of the footer section of your site. Many bloggers neglect this area, especially beginners. Put information about yourself in this area, links to any of your other websites, and links to important pages in your blog. It is important to make use of any area in your blog.
Learn how to make your WordPress blog posts more SEO-friendly. There is a free plugin called Yoast that can do this for you. It auto checks your pages’ SEO, canonical, breadcrumbs, sitemaps, permalink, and more. Using the data it provides teaches you how to optimize your blog posts properly.
Make sure the search engines can find your site! Otherwise, you will not generate the type of traffic you were hoping for. Go to the Settings area of WordPress and look for “Reading.” Then, ensure no checkmark next to the statement, “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.”
If you want to spice up your comment section, consider plugins that allow you or your readers to customize their posts. For example, Gravatar allows them to choose their avatar to appear next to their posts, meaning that their content can easily be picked out across all WordPress sites.
If you intend to use WordPress to build a website and do not want it to be updated by your posts, you should create a static page for the home page. You have to change the settings to say that the home page is static. WordPress will see that and will not direct your posts to update the home page.
Conclusion:
The experts have gathered some of their best advice and served it to you piping hot in this article. As long as you put what you have learned to use, you’ll have no problem creating your new WordPress site. Now that you know so much, get to work, and you’ll have your site up in no time!