The In's And Out's Of Working With WordPress

Whether you already have a wordpress site or are just considering one, there are some things you need to know. Creating a successful site takes work and know-how. This article has some great suggestions for you. Continue reading to learn more about wordpress. Then, bookmark this page so you can come back.

Add page numbers at the bottom of your comments section if you have a very active community. This is important as it will allow your users to be able to sort through the material and information easier. Make sure that the page numbers are easy to see for the viewers.

Set a publishing time for your blog posts. When editing an article for publication, you can select when it will be published. It’s a good idea to set regular updates for a specific date and time. To really stay on top of keeping your blog up to date, put your blog posts in ahead of time and let WordPress post them to your blog for you.

It is simple to add video to a site created with WordPress. Spending a little extra time preparing your website will save you time in the long run. The majority of people that use the internet are extremely visual. A video can clearly convey a message that is hard to explain with the written word; this makes video a powerful marketing tool.

Clean up comments and content that is worthless to your site. That way, the site stays suitable for the interested folks who read it. One great plugin to filter spam is Akismet.

Remove any special characters in the URLs of your blog posts. They make it difficult for search engine spiders to “crawl” around your pages. You should also shorten all URLs so that they aren’t overwhelming to anyone coming to your site, so only include the key words.

You can insert media into your posts just by pasting the URL where you’d like the media to appear. For example, paste in a YouTube video just by putting the URL within the text where you want the video to play. Be sure that the URL doesn’t turn blue – if it does, highlight it and click the unlink button.

If you upload changes to your WordPress site, but they don’t appear to have taken effect, try to refresh from a clear cache. Hold shift as you click the reload icon in your browser, or hold shift-ctrl-r at the same time. This will give you a clean version of your site which should be updated.

Do not forget about Facebook. Visitors to your site should be able to leave comments or register with your site through their Facebook account. There are plugins that will help you getting things rolling on your page, and they are easy to download and use. Since so many people are on Facebook, it is important to ensure that your page incorporates the social media site in some way.

Use Google Analytics to keep tabs on who is visiting your site and where they come from. It is important that you know where you are getting visitors from so that you can work harder to bring in more readers. The more you pay attention to your statistics, the bigger your site will become.

Make sure that you keep any plugins or themes you are using on your blog up to date. Exploits and general weaknesses in the security of a plugin or theme are almost always found eventually. Updates will keep them running smoothly and securely, but it’s important that you remember to keep them updated.

Always back up your WordPress files and database regularly. Although your website has backups, they may not do backups as frequently as you would like. You can find plugins that can make the back up process much easier. When you have your files and database backed up, you can easily restore your site if anything happens to it.

Is it hard for you to post on a schedule? You can pre-schedule your content to post if you like. You have the choice when creating your post for publication time. That way, you can write things in advance and post them later.

Want to create a new link in your post? There is no need to click the link icon any longer. Use ctrl-shift-A instead to start the link creation process using the keyboard and not the mouse. When you create many links within your content, this can shave time off the creation process.

Like all technology, wordpress takes some knowledge to operate successfully. Hopefully, you have gained some of the information you needed. Bookmarking this page will make it easy for you to return. Then, you can begin incorporating these ideas into your site. Soon, your wordpress page will have a professional presentation that visitors will enjoy.

Having Trouble With WordPress? Check Out These Tips!

WordPress is an incredibly valuable platform, largely because of the amazing accessibility it provides to a wide range of potential bloggers. Its ease of use is truly remarkable, but that is not to say that some amount of education is unnecessary before putting it to work. Use the information below to get a good grounding in WordPress so that you can get started blogging today.

If you want to easily be able to search through the media you upload, such as videos or photos, put it all into a single folder through WordPress. To do this, go into Settings & Media and then uncheck the box which sets WP to sort your media into folders based on the date.

Try learning all the options and tools you can when you blog on WordPress. For instance, clicking on the visible Kitchen Sink button can offer more choices for formatting posts to make them more unique. There is also a Screen Options tab located on the admin pages of your site. Control a variety of choices with this.

It is relatively easy to include video blogging in your WordPress site. You must do some preparation; however, it’s worth it. Video blogs are perfect for Internet users who are visual. Videos can teach people much better than words can.

Make sure that your wordpress site loads as fast as possible for your visitors. This is vital, as a site that crashes or takes too long will discourage your users from visiting it. A fast site will put your users in a good mood when they come there on a daily basis.

You are unable to change the images sizes yourself if your site has its own gallery plugin. The gallery plugin automatically sets the sizes of the images, and you don’t actually have any control over this. If you really need the image sizes changed, ask your developer to help you change the settings.

Include useful links at your footer. The footer is located at the bottom of your site. Most sites include contact information, copyright information and links to other sites in the footer. By including useful information in your footer, you can increase the sales, referrals and traffic to your site.

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.

If you find that writing new posts is cluttered and confusing because of all the stuff on your page, clean it up! Use the Screen Options link to choose what shows up on the composition page and what remains hidden. Many of your plugins may add content you don’t want, so remove it there.

Use the Easy Tweet Embed program to create links for readers to tweet the content of your posts to their followers. It does the work of creating the tweet content for you, so you don’t have to manually create it every time you draft a post, saving you a ton of time.

Try installing a caching plugin in your WordPress site. There are many out there, but a popular one is W3 Total Cache. This plugin simply caches the website and keeps it from reloading each time a page is reloaded. This makes your site faster. It speeds things up because every file isn’t being called every time a page reloads.

Do not keep the default sidebar. Go in and customize both the titles and sections in the theme directory. This will ensure that your site is unique. In addition, while you can have different sidebars on different pages of the site, you may want to consider keeping everything uniform for your visitors.

Join an online forum full of WordPress users. This way you can brainstorm ideas and get suggestions for your site. People are going to be happy to help you avoid their own WordPress mistakes. Just do a little reading to get some information, and you’ll find that a good forum is better than buying a lot of books.

Only install the plugins that you really need. When you have many plugins, you have to keep up with installing updates for them. Old plugins can be a security risk. Sometimes an update can conflict with another plugin and cause problems. The more plugins you use, the higher the risk of some plugins not working well together.

There is little debate about the tremendous appeal of WordPress among bloggers of all types. It is terrific way for beginners to get their foot in the door, but it can also be used by more advanced bloggers as well, to great result. Keep the tips found above handy, and WordPress can become a versatile tool that will be employed for years to come.

Need Help With WordPress? This Article Can Help!

Have you been thinking of starting a blog but feel you are too technologically challenged to do so? Well, have no fear because you have come to the right place. The following article will point out the most important things you should know when working with the most popular content management system – WordPress.

Be sure to add an author biography to each blog post on boards where many bloggers are posting. In this way, each blogger gets proper credit and it is easier for readers to know who posted what at a glance. Furthermore, readers will tend to stay on your page if they can get all the information they need in one place.

If you want to easily be able to search through the media you upload, such as videos or photos, put it all into a single folder through WordPress. To do this, go into Settings & Media and then uncheck the box which sets WP to sort your media into folders based on the date.

Remember that the title and description of each page on your site is what many other sites will use to categorize your link and share it with the world. For example, it will be what Google shows when someone searches for a site such as your own. Fill them with SEO key phrases and make sure there are no typos.

Download Akismet immediately with a fresh WordPress install. Akismet is a plugin for WordPress that basically blocks spam comments as they come in. If you don’t have it installed, you may be inundated with tons of spam. You’ll need to get a free key from the Akismet website to finalize the install.

Want to change authors on a post? Just edit the post and click on “Screen Options”. Next, choose Author and then choose whomever you want to become the author of the post. Next, click “update” or “publish” to finish the change and have it go live on your website and you’re done.

Constantly work on improving your permalinks. As WordPress becomes more popular, your traffic may decline. Change the URLs of your WordPress articles and incorporate higher quality keywords. You can minimize the amount of keywords as long as their value increases. This can be a nice boost to the traffic you see.

Keep close track of visitors to your blog. This is the only way you will be able to improve it to please your reader more. Free WordPress bloggers can use Jetpack stats to do this. Both free and paid bloggers can use Google Analytics. Be sure to make good use of both services if you can because they offer slightly different advantages.

Having a theme for your WordPress site can make it much more professional. There are plenty of websites that allow you to download themes for free. However, it is very important that you download themes from a trusted source. Not doing so can result in you installing outdated or malicious codes.

Back up your blog. This should be done regularly. Consider a plugin such as Xcloner to assist you. Be sure to back your blog up in multiple spots. It would be terrible to lose your whole blog.

For a more customizable commenting system, try using CommentLuv. This system si a premium plugin that is pretty popular with bloggers. It makes commenting on other blogs easy. You can set it up to leave a link that connects automatically to your latest post. This is ideal for things like giveaways since it lets more people know about it.

Try installing a caching plugin in your WordPress site. There are many out there, but a popular one is W3 Total Cache. This plugin simply caches the website and keeps it from reloading each time a page is reloaded. This makes your site faster. It speeds things up because every file isn’t being called every time a page reloads.

Join an online forum full of WordPress users. This way you can brainstorm ideas and get suggestions for your site. People are going to be happy to help you avoid their own WordPress mistakes. Just do a little reading to get some information, and you’ll find that a good forum is better than buying a lot of books.

Only install the plugins that you really need. When you have many plugins, you have to keep up with installing updates for them. Old plugins can be a security risk. Sometimes an update can conflict with another plugin and cause problems. The more plugins you use, the higher the risk of some plugins not working well together.

The article you have just read covered a lot of very valuable information about using WordPress when creating a blog. Hopefully you learned enough from it that you now feel empowered enough to get out of your comfort zone and tackle WordPress. Take the knowledge you now have and let your creativity flow.

Good Solid Advice About WordPress That Anyone Can Use

WordPress is the most popular blogging tool around, and for good reason. WordPress embodies versatility while remaining easy to use. WordPress is an awesome platform to use if you’d like a professional blog. Read on to gain some tricks for making WordPress effective for you.

Be sure to add an author biography to each blog post on boards where many bloggers are posting. In this way, each blogger gets proper credit and it is easier for readers to know who posted what at a glance. Furthermore, readers will tend to stay on your page if they can get all the information they need in one place.

Create smart URLs! Don’t use a lot of keywords in the URL, and keep the whole thing simple and straightforward. Avoid excessive verbiage. You want to create smart permalinks that are easy to look at and easy to understand. This helps make your blog more user friendly and comprehensible.

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.

It is easy to use WordPress to add video blogging to the website. It may take more effort, but it’s worth it. Internet users are mainly visual. A video can add interest to the site, and it is a great tool.

When you use different tags for the topics on your blog, keep in mind that these are strictly for searching the content on your blog. These can’t be used by search engines. If you want your pages to be searchable on Google, you have to install an SEO type plug-in such as Headspace.

If you want to create a line break, but not a paragraph break, hold shift while you press the enter key. This moves the cursor down to the next line without including any blank space. If you want to put a letterhead-type address on your page, this should make it a snap.

Regularly check your site and content. All your plugins and everything else you work with needs to be current. This will help ensure that your visitors have a seamless experience on your site. If you have trouble remembering to do this, consider setting your phone to alert you once a month to perform this task.

Many people are responding to video blogs, so consider this option. Video blogging is not only becoming more popular, it is also becoming much easier to use. WordPress, in its current version, makes the use of video blogging easy. This can really increase traffic by drawing those who are less inclined to read.

Help users easily send articles to you when they want. There are some people who cannot look at Twitter or Facebook in the office;however, they want to share your information with others. You can use a plugin called WP-Email to help you do this.

Keep close track of visitors to your blog. This is the only way you will be able to improve it to please your reader more. Free WordPress bloggers can use Jetpack stats to do this. Both free and paid bloggers can use Google Analytics. Be sure to make good use of both services if you can because they offer slightly different advantages.

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 titles and descriptions that have targeted keywords. Your potential readers see these first because of search engine listings. That also makes them the most important. You can use Scribe, which will help you control this on WordPress. This will increase the traffic to your site.

Most visitors to your WordPress site will have some type of social media account, whether it is Facebook or Twitter. If they see something and want to share it on their accounts, you want to make that process as easy as possible. Therefore, download a plugin that allows for social sharing.

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.

When you start using WordPress, before long, you will start seeing why so many others use it already. Use these tips above to get more benefits from WordPress. Your blog will look fabulous and you can focus on content after you understand the technical aspects.

WordPress Tips, Tricks, And Helpful Advice To Get Started

Have you given WordPress a try in the past, but wondered if there might be more to it than you realized? Perhaps you are interested in learning about new and exciting features that make WordPress even more helpful to bloggers. If so, this article should prove extremely interesting and valuable.

Be sure to stay on top of updates! Many updates to add-ons or WordPress itself are security-based, meaning your site could be compromised if you don’t update the software. If it’s telling you a new update is available, install it as soon as possible to protect your site from harm.

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.

Keep your permalinks clean and understandable. That means you should look at the permalink box every time you put up a new post. Does the title in the URL make sense? Does it help from an SEO standpoint? If not, click on it and alter it until it is perfect.

When you are done with your site, check out how it looks from a visitors standpoint. Did you get across everything that you wanted? Go to your site from someone else’s computer to get their point of view and write down the changes that you will need to make to continually improve the aesthetics.

Most templates come with a landing page built in, so make use of it. This stripped down page allows you to focus their intention on exactly what you want them to look at, be it a sign-up form or a “Buy Now” link. This ensures they take the actions you want them to.

Learn what you need to know before you begin. Adequate planning will save you time in the long run. Discover all you can about SEO and how to build smart content with WordPress.

You are unable to change the images sizes yourself if your site has its own gallery plugin. The gallery plugin automatically sets the sizes of the images, and you don’t actually have any control over this. If you really need the image sizes changed, ask your developer to help you change the settings.

Does your WordPress dashboard look like a cluttered mess? Want to clean it up? Use the Screen Options link on that page to choose which boxes you want to appear and remove those which aren’t helpful to you. This will ensure that your dashboard experience is streamlined in the future.

Use the Easy Tweet Embed program to create links for readers to tweet the content of your posts to their followers. It does the work of creating the tweet content for you, so you don’t have to manually create it every time you draft a post, saving you a ton of time.

Is it hard for you to post at scheduled times? You can write it in advance and have WordPress post it for you at a preselected time. Future publication is an option any time you open a page for a new post. So go ahead and write your posts when you want and have them post when you want.

Try to manage your comments. No one wants to look at spam. Don’t let the spam in your blog’s comment sections get out of hand. Try to eliminate spam entirely or, at least, keep it to a minimum. Install a plugin that can cut down on spam. Delete any spam that slips through in your comments.

Use the Evergreen Post Tweeter plugin to promote your posts automatically. It can be a chore to choose which posts to retweet daily, so let the software do it for you instead. Once you have it in place, you can literally set it and forget it and then enjoy the visitors it brings in.

For a more customizable commenting system, try using CommentLuv. This system si a premium plugin that is pretty popular with bloggers. It makes commenting on other blogs easy. You can set it up to leave a link that connects automatically to your latest post. This is ideal for things like giveaways since it lets more people know about it.

Evaluate plugins carefully before you install it in your WordPress account. Plugin creation is not regulated, and anyone in the world with the right skill can create a plugin and make it available to the public. To make sure that the source is reliable, read the reviews and pay special attention to the negative comments.

If you have always had a vague awareness of the value of WordPress, but never really delved into the specifics, the above information was perfect for you. Now that you have read a bit more about what this tool can do for you, inspiration is sure to follow. Best wishes as you begin maximizing your use of WordPress to astounding effect.

New To WordPress? These Tips Can Help!

Have you given WordPress a try in the past, but wondered if there might be more to it than you realized? Perhaps you are interested in learning about new and exciting features that make WordPress even more helpful to bloggers. If so, this article should prove extremely interesting and valuable.

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 is going to see. Include a short bio that includes all of your details or important links that pertain to what you want to get across.

Create smart URLs! Don’t use a lot of keywords in the URL, and keep the whole thing simple and straightforward. Avoid excessive verbiage. You want to create smart permalinks that are easy to look at and easy to understand. This helps make your blog more user friendly and comprehensible.

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.

One reason WordPress is so great to work with is that its plug-ins offer a dazzling array of functions. Be that as it may, you want to be careful when selecting plug-ins. Don’t just start downloading them willy-nilly. Begin with the essential plug-ins: WP DataBase BackUp, All-In-One SEO Pack and WP Optimize. Choose others with care to get precisely what you need.

Clean up comments and content that is worthless to your site. This will keep your site user-friendly to the honest people who are viewing it. Easily clean up any spam on your website with the Akismet plugin.

Remove special characters from your blog post URLs. When search engines attempt to spider your website, these will give them problems, so get rid of them. In addition, make sure the URLs aren’t too long; you don’t want anyone to be turned off by the length.

WordPress has many keyboard shortcuts which make working with posts a snap. For example, ctrl-c allows you to copy text, while ctrl-x lets you cut it. Ctrl-v will paste it somewhere else. Ctrl-b is bold, ctrl-i is italic and ctrl-u is underline. These basic keyboard shortcuts will save you a lot of time if you memorize them.

You are unable to change the images sizes yourself if your site has its own gallery plugin. The gallery plugin automatically sets the sizes of the images, and you don’t actually have any control over this. If you really need the image sizes changed, ask your developer to help you change the settings.

Want to change authors on a post? Just edit the post and click on “Screen Options”. Next, choose Author and then choose whomever you want to become the author of the post. Next, click “update” or “publish” to finish the change and have it go live on your website and you’re done.

As you begin getting comments on your posts, consider allowing people to post with an avatar. It helps your site feel like more of a community, and it only takes a minute to do. Simply go to the settings area of your dashboard and then click on “discussion.” You should see the option there to enable avatars.

When looking for a template, look for one that has the basic layout and design that you desire for your site. This way, you would not have to customize it too much in order to give it the look that you want. This will cut down on your site development time.

Only use the most recent updated WordPress version available. Updates offer patches that will strengthen the security of the site. Using an out of date WordPress version will leave your site vulnerable to malware attacks. So, you should keep your WordPress program updated to minimize security breaches.

You can give more content to the reader by using internal linking plugins on your website. This type of plugin adds lists of posts at the end of every post. These are selected based on tag relevance.

Schedule blog posts beforehand with WordPress. For posts already written, you can set them up to post on different days and times, even if you aren’t near your computer. Find the Publish option from your Edit screen. There, you will find “publish immediately.” Set the times in military time and the day, month and year you want to post it. Choose OK. Click on the ‘schedule’ button on the ‘schedule for’ screen to plan schedule your blog posts.

If you have always had a vague awareness of the value of WordPress, but never really delved into the specifics, the above information was perfect for you. Now that you have read a bit more about what this tool can do for you, inspiration is sure to follow. Best wishes as you begin maximizing your use of WordPress to astounding effect.

What You Need To Know About Using WordPress

WordPress is a very interesting platform for bloggers that is extremely popular. If you desire to learn more about WordPress, then this article is going to discuss various topics of interest. Sit back, relax, and get ready to find out more about how you can make this blogging platform work for you.

Try to use a landing page when you are using wordpress on your site. This is a great alternative to displaying your current posts as it gives your site flavor and pizzazz. You can even use Premise for WordPress, which is a premium solution that can get you started with the process.

Check out add-ons to find simple tools which will make your site or blog better. For example, you could add a calendar to your side menu bar in order to share events which would be interesting to your readers. You can also find many great add-ons which provide control for advertising, turning your site into a revenue maker.

Keep your permalinks clean and understandable. That means you should look at the permalink box every time you put up a new post. Does the title in the URL make sense? Does it help from an SEO standpoint? If not, click on it and alter it until it is perfect.

You must specify if you want your post to appear in other than chronological order. Change the dates to rearrange the posts. To do this, locate the date in the upper right corner of an open post. Click on the date, change it and then save your post in order to change its position.

You can improve your search engine rank by spending a few extra minutes with your pictures as you upload them. You should incorporate title tags to your photos. If your image goes on Pinterest, you will get more exposure.

Don’t forget to spellcheck your WordPress story. WordPress makes that easy through a spellcheck button on the editor itself. Look for a button that has the letters “ABC” on it. It’ll then scan your post for spelling and common grammatical errors. Check any word or phrase that has a red squiggly line under it.

Choose a focused keyword for each post or page you create. What would someone be searching for if this is the exact content they wanted? Be sure to make your key phrases targeted as simple queries, such as “sailing tips”, are already overrun by thousands of competitors and their websites.

Using the most current version of WordPress is very important. Updates generally include security fixes that you will want to have. Using an outdated version opens your page up to all sorts of negative possibilities. That is why you should always install the latest WordPress updates to make sure everything is safe and secure.

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.

Include your SEO-based keywords in the titles of your posts. In fact, make them the first few words of the title. For example, if your key phrases is “best pizza in Toronto”, you could create a title such as “For the Best Pizza in Toronto, Only Spring Water Will Do!”

If you need to work on your site, be sure to turn on a maintenance mode so that visitors aren’t surprised with the current state of your website. There are lots of maintenance mode plugins out there. And best of all, they are typically free. It’s a quick button push to toggle maintenance mode on and off.

Evaluate plugins carefully before you install it in your WordPress account. Plugin creation is not regulated, and anyone in the world with the right skill can create a plugin and make it available to the public. To make sure that the source is reliable, read the reviews and pay special attention to the negative comments.

Make sure to pick a WordPress host that allows you to click a button in order to install it. This will save you a lot of hassle from having to create your own database separately. With the click of a button, it is possible for the host to set up the blog domain along with the database.

Experiment with a variety of blogging tools. Don’t find WordPress’ dashboard particularly helpful? Use something such as Windows Live Writer to help. A lot of tools are out there that are WordPress compatible but far more efficient. Try out a bunch of these and then decide on the best tool for you.

Now you can surely see why WordPress is so popular and also how you can better use it to fuel your blogging efforts. Put the tips you’ve discovered here to use for you so that you can find yourself an experienced blogger. You can now be one that utilizes all the tools necessary to succeed.

WordPress For Dummies – Some Tips And Tricks

WordPress is now the most popular way to build a blog online. It has many rich features that can help almost anyone build the site or blog they want. Keep reading to discover more about WordPress.

Be sure to add an author biography to each blog post on boards where many bloggers are posting. In this way, each blogger gets proper credit and it is easier for readers to know who posted what at a glance. Furthermore, readers will tend to stay on your page if they can get all the information they need in one place.

Make sure your sidebar is not too cluttered. The sidebars on most WordPress blogs are a chaotic mess, full of social media icons and ads and links. Prioritize what goes in your sidebar. Make sure visitors to your blog don’t have to search for anything they might be looking for.

Learn everything you can about the tools available on WordPress. For instance, the button “kitchen sink” gives you a plethora of choices for formatting and importing content into your posts. Also check out “screen options” for admin functions. Use this section to change many of your formatting elements.

Use your footers wisely. People often scroll to the bottom of a page to find out who runs the site, how to contact the owner or to see how fresh the content is based on a copyright date. You can even include a short biography or other information you feel is pertinent.

Create a members only section to your website to make it more exclusive to the people who visit your site on a daily basis. This will allow them to actively engage in discussions with other members who have the same level of intensity. This will develop a solid bond between your top visitors.

Don’t forget to spellcheck your WordPress story. WordPress makes that easy through a spellcheck button on the editor itself. Look for a button that has the letters “ABC” on it. It’ll then scan your post for spelling and common grammatical errors. Check any word or phrase that has a red squiggly line under it.

Minimize the number of WordPress plugins you use. Although plugins can be beneficial, too many can slow down your site’s load time. The web site will load more slowly and affect your search engine rank. Slower sites do not appear as high in search rankings as optimized sites.

So, what is the difference between tags and categories and why should I care? Categories are broad and house many posts which fall into the same genre, such as “cleaning tips”. Tags are more targeted, detailed words which describe what is in the content of a post, such as “removing blood stains” or “getting out grass stains”.

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.

If you find that writing new posts is cluttered and confusing because of all the stuff on your page, clean it up! Use the Screen Options link to choose what shows up on the composition page and what remains hidden. Many of your plugins may add content you don’t want, so remove it there.

Use the Easy Tweet Embed program to create links for readers to tweet the content of your posts to their followers. It does the work of creating the tweet content for you, so you don’t have to manually create it every time you draft a post, saving you a ton of time.

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.

If you just want to dabble in WordPress without installing it on your web hosting account, consider opening an account with WordPress.com. You will get a subdomain to the WordPress domain, and your blog is hosting by WordPress for free. This is a good way to get your feet wet into blogging.

If you want to improve traffic to your own domain, you should host your WordPress blog in your web account instead of using WordPress.com as the host. When you install WordPress yourself, you have more control over what features you can install and customize. Any visitor will be counted as traffic in your domain and not in WordPress.com’s domain.

WordPress is extremely helpful and not difficult to learn to use. It does not take a great deal of effort to make an attractive website with WordPress once you know the basics. If you feel inclined, learn the advanced skills for an even better website. There are always new developments with WordPress, so continue to educate yourself on them to better your website.

Trying To Figure Out WordPress? Try These Tips And Tricks

WordPress is an incredibly valuable platform, largely because of the amazing accessibility it provides to a wide range of potential bloggers. Its ease of use is truly remarkable, but that is not to say that some amount of education is unnecessary before putting it to work. Use the information below to get a good grounding in WordPress so that you can get started blogging today.

Make your theme current on your website to draw more traffic. Switch to a new theme that accentuates your colors and logos. Also, you may want to opt for a more professioanl theme if you are planning on showing your site off to a high volume of potential customers each day.

If you are doing a WordPress blog for professional or search engine optimization purporses, don’t let WordPress actually host your blog. Put your blog on a different host and then just use the WordPress application there. Blogs at WordPress’ website are sometimes deleted for being too commercial or deemed spammy in content.

Make sure you have a landing page. This will ensure that visitors arrive at a specific page instead of directing them right to your most recent posts. A landing page will help your site gain an air of authenticity and helps it to look a little more professional than it would have otherwise.

Create a members only section to your website to make it more exclusive to the people who visit your site on a daily basis. This will allow them to actively engage in discussions with other members who have the same level of intensity. This will develop a solid bond between your top visitors.

Remove any special characters in the URLs of your blog posts. This makes it harder for search engine spiders to index your site, so you should get rid of them. Try shortening all URLs to avoid overwhelming visitors. Try using only keywords.

If you haven’t customized your WordPress sidebar, it could be cluttered with useless items that are doing nothing but confusing your readers. Your sidebar should only contain things you actually want visitors to click on. Navigate to Appearance & Widgets to edit the appearance of your sidebar and remove anything there that doesn’t actually benefit you or your visitors directly.

If you want to create a line break, but not a paragraph break, hold shift while you press the enter key. This moves the cursor down to the next line without including any blank space. If you want to put a letterhead-type address on your page, this should make it a snap.

Look into other themes for your WordPress blog. Sure WordPress comes preinstalled with a few excellent themes, but there are many more options out there. Many are free and then there are premium themes as well. These premium themes are very well designed and let you add more advanced aspects to your blog with ease, such as e-commerce plugins.

Make sure your site has the most recent version of WordPress. Updates are necessary because they patch security vulnerabilities. Using older versions will make your site susceptible to spyware attacks. Install all the updates to keep your site secure.

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.

Does your WordPress dashboard look like a cluttered mess? Want to clean it up? Use the Screen Options link on that page to choose which boxes you want to appear and remove those which aren’t helpful to you. This will ensure that your dashboard experience is streamlined in the future.

If you find that writing new posts is cluttered and confusing because of all the stuff on your page, clean it up! Use the Screen Options link to choose what shows up on the composition page and what remains hidden. Many of your plugins may add content you don’t want, so remove it there.

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.

There is little debate about the tremendous appeal of WordPress among bloggers of all types. It is terrific way for beginners to get their foot in the door, but it can also be used by more advanced bloggers as well, to great result. Keep the tips found above handy, and WordPress can become a versatile tool that will be employed for years to come.

Making WordPress Work For You: Tips And Tricks

Have you ever wanted to start your own blog? Do you worry that the software is just too difficult to use? This is far from true. By using WordPress to blog, almost anyone can start their own blog within a few minutes. Keep reading to learn more about this powerful program.

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.

Allow all of the users that visit your site the ability to comment using Facebook. This is a very important tool that will get your name across to hundreds of thousands of people. The Simple Facebook Connect plugin can be used if you want to install this feature on your site.

Enable different types of avatars on your website. This will make your site very fun and friendly for the users who visit it. Also, it will allow you to get across your personality in a better way. To find this component, visit the discussion area on your dashboard under settings.

When you are ready to start posting, create a schedule. You may actually do it, if you set a time. With the scheduling feature available on WordPress, you can create several posts and schedule them throughout the week.

If you haven’t customized your WordPress sidebar, it could be cluttered with useless items that are doing nothing but confusing your readers. Your sidebar should only contain things you actually want visitors to click on. Navigate to Appearance & Widgets to edit the appearance of your sidebar and remove anything there that doesn’t actually benefit you or your visitors directly.

Control unruly spam not by turning off comments, but by installing the right plugin. Aksimet’s anti-spam plugin is exceptional at keeping your site on the up and up. You can also add Recaptcha which adds a captcha to the comments box on your site, ensuring no bots can leave a message.

Do not forget about Facebook. Visitors to your site should be able to leave comments or register with your site through their Facebook account. There are plugins that will help you getting things rolling on your page, and they are easy to download and use. Since so many people are on Facebook, it is important to ensure that your page incorporates the social media site in some way.

Be sure to back up your site often! The best way to do this is to have your host back up your site every day for you. If they don’t offer this service, instead back it up yourself. There are plugins which will do the job for you, or you can just download it to your own computer.

Differentiate the look of your WordPress blog. It may be tempting to just roll with the standard WordPress themes, but you’ll look like many other blogs out there. Consider a few other themes. Even install them so that you can preview them with your current crop of content. It can make all the difference to audience engagement.

If you need to work on your site, be sure to turn on a maintenance mode so that visitors aren’t surprised with the current state of your website. There are lots of maintenance mode plugins out there. And best of all, they are typically free. It’s a quick button push to toggle maintenance mode on and off.

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.

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.

A great commenting plugin that is useful for WordPress is Disqus. This free commenting system works well with its API. You have the ability to import and back up your comments with it. It also adds essential SEO to your comments so that the search engines can index them easier.

Now that you have read this article, you can see just how easy it is to start blogging with WordPress. If you want, you can start your own blog within just a few minutes. Once you master the basics of WordPress, you can start to share your writing with the whole world.