Getting What You Need From WordPress: Tips And Tricks

Using wordpress can be daunting if you do not know where to begin. There is so much information, much of it confusing to the layperson. If you do not know how to maximize your results with wordpress, you have come to the right place. The following ideas can help you successfully navigate wordpress.

Clean up long post titles as you construct the permalink. Use only the most important keywords so that your URL isn’t too cumbersome. You can change that permalink to ” parenting-tips-unruly-kids” or similar based on SEO keywords.

Don’t forget to use spellcheck. It may seem obvious now, but many people forget to do it. When using the WordPress editor to post to your blog, make sure you take advantage of its spellcheck function. Even if you have already proofread your post, a quick and simple spellcheck couldn’t hurt.

If you want a post to stay at the top of the page, there is no need to set it’s date way in the future any longer. Instead, go to the post and click on Edit under Visibility. Choose the option which allows you to make the post sticky and enjoy!

Incorporate a social sharing plugin for your WordPress blog. Integrating social media with your blog will be a great boon to your traffic. Your users can instantly share your article through Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Look for a plugin that will allow liking and sharing, since both will be beneficial.

Take the time to log out of your site every once in a while. Go back and look at it as a visitor. Doing so could allow you to see something that you are missing when you are logged in as an administrator. This step will not take very long, but it should set your mind at ease that everything is functioning the way that it should be.

Optimize your photo size before uploading them to your WordPress media library. Photos should be no more than 10 to 15 kilobytes in size. A website is no place for a multi-megabyte sized photo. It’ll slow down your website, which may cause some visitors just to surf elsewhere. Take the few minutes it takes to downsize that photo.

Use a security plugin. Keeping your blog secure is important, and there are plenty of plugins out there that promise to do just that. Try a plugin you feel you can trust. Wordfence is a good choice. It offers a firewall, does virus scans, blocks any malicious networks, and is free.

Are the pictures on your site too big? Or, are you concerned that your visitors cannot see them clearly? Click on “settings” and then on “media.” You will be able to adjust the default size of your pictures. Spend a little time playing around with this to see what suits you, and your site, the best.

Your first WordPress plugin install should be Jetpack. The plugin extends the usability of WordPress in a lot of important ways. For instance, it gives you some basic analytics on the main page of the dashboard. It also increases your social media options for your website and adds in contact form options.

Create a plan beforehand to give your site the best organization. Write down a to-do list for your site. This helps you build a site with everything you need from the onset.

Make sure to place images on your website. Remember that many people only look at the pictures and never read the words. This makes your site far more dramatic. 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.

WordPress.com has limited functionality for its users, yet it does have advantages. When your blog is hosted on WordPress.com, WordPress will take care of spam filtering, backups and restores, and address any security issues on your site. However, if you are hosting WordPress yourself, you will have to deal with these issues yourself.

You can test changes to your site before you make them live by duplicating it in an additional folder and database. This helps you avoid mistakes that could cost you money or your site.

If you aren’t using a plugin anymore, deactivate it, but also consider deleting it. Even in a deactivated state, your WordPress website checks on that plugin upon page load which actually slows down your site. Instead, delete those unused plugins completely. If you’ve got a lot of them, you may see a nice uptick to your site’s speed.

Connecting your blogs to your social media accounts helps your readers stay updated and lets them interact with you easier. Use SexyBookmarks for this. SexyBookmarks is a plugin that helps you link your social media accounts with your blog. There are many ways to customize the links to blend seamlessly with your page.

Categories and tags let you use SEO key phrases. It is possible that people may be searching for specific category names when using Google. Examples such as, “Beginners tips for WordPress” or “great WordPress plugins” could be what brought you here.

Avoid WordPress hackers by having a secure web host. There are a multitude of web hosting services available; however, if you go with simply cheap, you can put yourself at risk. Look at Internet reviews about the host you are considering. Make sure they have a strong, stable and secure presence on the Internet.

Never use someone who doesn’t know PHP to create your WordPress site. There are many designers who claim to be able to install and operate a WP site, but if they don’t know PHP, they won’t be able to make many changes which you might find necessary, so find a pro instead.

For the novice wordpress user, this article was chock full of new ideas. Now that you have read it, you ought to have a better idea of how to make your site more appealing. Implement these suggestions into your site. You will notice that your traffic increases and you will get more return visitors.