There is little that compares with creating your own blog that features your own opinions and thoughts on subjects near and dear to you. WordPress is a great option for all types of bloggers. Here are some excellent suggestions for getting the most out of WordPress.
If the title for a post is long, try cleaning up the permalink. This would be a URL that is too long: “Ten Parenting Methods For Taming Kids The Smart Way.” Rather, try to shorten permalinks while retaining the same meaning.
Make sure you learn everything you can prior to installing WordPress. The more you plan in advance, the better you can start off. Discover all you can about SEO and how to build smart content with WordPress.
Don’t choose a design that’s identical to what others that have a WordPress website use. Though it is less time consuming, your site will blend in with other blogs. You want your site to stand out from others.
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.
Clean up the content and comments that do not add any value to your website. This will ensure your site remains user friendly. A good plugin to include which can help filter daily spam on the site is Akismet.
Get rid of extraneous characters from URLs. They give search engines difficulty when they are spidering your site, so try to eliminate them altogether. Your URLs should also be shortened to just include keywords, so they do not overwhelm your visitors.
If your post has a lengthy title, make sure to adjust the permalink. For instance, if you have a long phrase in a URL, that can seem very long. Choose something simpler like “intelligent-parents-manage-children”.
Your posts appear chronologically by default; however, you can change this. If you want to rearrange the list, you’ll have to change the date first. Open a post and look at the upper right hand corner. There you will find the date. Click the date, make the necessary modification, then save. This procedure will change its position.
Are there lots of people commenting on your posts? If you do, it can be cumbersome to sift through all of them. To remedy this, you can use a plugin that adds page numbers to your comments section. Not only will your blog look more organized, but it will also make navigation a lot easier.
Make sure you maintain an organized media library. You may wish to just put images right into your library, but this can result in chaos. You should start with a simple folder structure and go from there. This will make searching for a particular image much easier.
Become familiar with the tools available to use with WordPress. One great tool is: Kitchen Sink. It gives you may importing and formatting choices. Screen Options is another useful tool. This can help you control various formatting elements.
Take the time to update your plugins regularly. You can really improve your website with WordPress plugins. They need to be updated just like traditional software. Failing to maintain current updates may cause you to miss important changes that keep the plugin working well.
Do not use an old version of WordPress. Many updates have security updates to fix vulnerabilities. If you don’t update, you could be leaving your website open to malware issues. So, make sure you’re installing all updates that are rolled out.
Use the scheduler tool to schedule the publishing of your blog posts. You can schedule them to post, even if you aren’t around. The option to publish now or later is available under the edit screen in WordPress. There, you will find “publish immediately.” Put your times in with military format, particularly the years, months and days. When the correct time and date are on your screen, select ‘ok’. Check mark the “schedule for” option, and then hit the schedule button if it is correct.
Make sure you use “title” and “alt.” text whenever you upload pictures. This is good for SEO, and it allows people who have disabled images to know what the images are about.
Are you having a hard time keeping to a schedule of posting regularly? You can write a blurb ahead of time and have it posted at the date and time that you select. Future publications are very convenient. Therefore, write away and get everything taken care of ahead of time.
It’s no wonder why blogging is as popular as it is today. With the Internet, people’s thoughts and ideas can reach millions. Doing so yourself will be easier than ever once you have a better handle on how to best use WordPress.