Struggling To Learn WordPress? Check Out These Top Tips!
It’s harder to use WordPress than you might think. Particularly if you haven’t used it before, a little background knowledge can come in handy. Remember, with more knowledge about WordPress, you will increase your success. Following are some helpful tips to help set you on the right path.
If you plan to start a WordPress blog, make sure that you offer readers more than just content. Even if you say many useful things, it may be quite difficult to engage readers with text. It would be a great idea to implement videos and pictures since this is a great attention grabber.
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 in a random fashion. Give it some thought and optimize with good keywords.
Pay attention to your footer. The bottom of your page does not just have to be wasted space. Instead, put in an important link or work in a few words about who you are and what you do. You could even use the footer to tell visitors a little more about the site itself.
Sidebars are generally packed full of useless information. To help streamline them and only include information that your visitors want, navigate to Appearance & Widgets. Remove everything from your sidebar that does not get more people on your list, make visitors take an action or make you money. By paring down your sidebar, your WordPress site will become successful.
Have you even worked on your site and thought that the changes you made were not saved? It is probably not the truth. Clear the browser cache to avoid this issue. Your changes will appear by simply pressing and holding the “shift” key and refreshing the browser simultaneously.
Unless you change the settings, all your posts will be listed in chronological order. First you must modify the date, then you can rearrange the list. Open a post that you want to appear at the top and change the date located in the upper right corner. Change the date after clicking on it to get it moved from the original position.
Use the “ABC” button to spell check your posts before they go live. Many people overlook this ability, but WordPress can spell check your work for you. This ensures that you continue to give off a professional look with your posts and yet you don’t have to use a separate program to do so.
Do your posts have many comments? If you do, it can be cumbersome to sift through all of them. A plugin including page numbers will organize this section. That is going to help your site seem organized, and it will be much easier to navigate.
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!
Use images properly on your WordPress site. They can add everything from beauty to interest to your pages. Use their alternative text tags and title tags properly. Don’t settle for generic descriptions. You need to make them specific so that your visitors know exactly what they are. This also helps them figure out what your site is about.
Do not go without proper backup when blogging. Do it regularly. Xcloner is a wonderful WordPress plugin designed just for this purpose. Use whatever site or plugin you’re comfortable with to back up your blog, but make sure you back it up in more than one location. It would be devastating to lose your whole blog.
If your have opened up your WordPress blog for comments, be sure to monitor and moderate the comments. You do not want any inappropriate comments to appear on your blog that can be offensive to your readers. When you moderate incoming comments, you can delete spam and anything that you do not want to display to your readers.
If you want to have a landing page as the front page of your site, you will first need to create a “home” page and then a second page for your blog. Next, go into Reading Settings and click the static page radio button. Choose your home page for the front page and your blog page for the posts page.
Some visitors may want to share one of your posts with friends or family members through their email. Unless you have a plugin in specifically for that purpose, the user may not find the process very easy. Therefore, install one ahead of time so that your visitors are not frustrated.
When searching for plugins, spend time reading through the reviews. Remember that anyone with some programming know-how can build these plugins. Don’t use plugins that are flawed and buggy. Look for the plugins that have very high ratings.
If you have made a mistake in spelling of a name in multiple posts, or just want to change a certain word across your site, use the Search and Replace plugin to do the job for you. The time it takes to do this manually is horrific, so instead let the plugin get it done.
The plugin Broken Link Checker makes finding broken links on your site an easy task. Why don’t you want broken links? They make your content appear dated, and that can lose your reader’s interest. When you update or remove broken links, they’ll never realize how old your posts might be.
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.
If you’re a beginner, WordPress can be intimidating. Bear in mind though, you have embarked on your quest for information by reading this article. Just use this advice and you better your chances of success.