Most bloggers have at least heard of WordPress. The capabilities of the software are underutilized by many of its users. The following information discusses what you need to know about WordPress in order to use it most efficiently.
Be certain you avoid using the same designs as all the people who have WordPress. While using something that others already have up is simple, it doesn’t create a great first impression of your site. You want to differentiate your website by enhancing the uniqueness of your business.
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Make sure to use both alt text and title tags. You should include alt text when adding images to your posts. This way, you can add a lot more keyword phrases to your content, and visitors who have images disabled on the computers will get a good idea of what is there.
Video blogging is easy with WordPress. This will take a while, but the benefits are great. Many users want to see videos. This can be a great tool to clarify what you want to say.
If there is content or comments that aren’t of value, remove them. This makes your site more appealing. The plugin “Askimet” can make the process of identifying spam quite easy.
Remove special characters from your blog post URLs. They can make it hard for search engines to “spider” and should be removed. It would also be useful to use shorter URLs that contain the necessary keywords.
Are you getting as many comments as you’d like? If they do, it is hard to go through all of the comments. Install a plugin that can divide this into different pages. This will make the whole process much smoother.
Spend a little extra time on your pictures if you want to improve your rankings on search engines. You should incorporate title tags to your photos. If a visitor “pins” your image onto Pinterest, the title that you selected is what will show up on their screen automatically.
At the very top of your WordPress page, create a catchy greeting for your visitors. This can provide a more personalized experience for your visitors because it allows you to provide a message that has to do with how the user came to visit your blog. A possible plugin to use is WP Greet Box; using this will make the things feel less robotic.
Make it easy for your followers to email your articles as they wish. This is critical when it comes to sharing too, because those who do not have access to social media at work may still want to send your articles to their friends. The WP-Email plugin is great for this.
Your username should never be “admin” or anything similar. This will make your site vulnerable to bots that want to attack it. Using these usernames can put your site at risk. Delete all users who call themselves “administrator” or “admin”. Use something else.
Never share your WordPress password. On top of that, only download plugins from sites which are reputable and check the reviews before you install anything. When your site ends up hacked or attacked by malware, you’ll lose all that you’ve built.
Organize your media library and keep it that way. While uploading images randomly to the library is tempting, chaos can set in. Make a folder structure before uploading, and put the pictures into each correct folder. This makes it easier later on if you’d like to reuse images.
Make sure plugins are always up to date. Plugins can add a lot to your site; they have many unique features. They will update just like normal software. Not updating your site means you will not have access to upgrades and the plugins may not work as they should.
Only use the most recent updated WordPress version available. Updates contain security patches that eliminate vulnerabilities. Older versions can corrupt your computer due to malware attacks. So, to keep your site secure, always install WordPress updates.
Back up your blog. Regularly schedule this important task. Consider a plugin, for example Xcloner. Your choice of backup website or plugin is at your discretion, but be sure you do more than one backup location. Losing every part of your blog would truly be a nightmare.
You no longer have to manually accept comments. Akismet is great for this. You can moderate comments individually, but it’s advisable to switch off manual approval and let visitors comment freely. You won’t save yourself time.
Are you having a hard time posting at designated times? You can write something in advance and schedule it to publish at the time and date of your choosing. When you make a new post, you have the option to publish it at a future date. This will reduce your stress of getting the content out on time.
WordPress has been around awhile and many bloggers have tried it. Even bloggers who have used WordPress for some time may not fully understand all of its capabilities. You will be sure to be one of those lucky people who finds success with this great tool by using the solid advice in the article above.
This article’s goal was to give you a smattering of information about wordpress, however, there is much more to learn. Keep researching and finding new data sources. A bit of knowledge about wordpress goes so far.