Are you a blogger who loves sharing new information? Do you hunger for a larger audience? Or, are you looking for a blogging platform that is easier to use? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have a lot to gain by learning more about WordPress and how to use it.
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.
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.
Devise a schedule when you are set to begin making posts. By knowing when you need to post, you will be more motivated. As a matter of fact, you can create your posts ahead of time and then use the WP scheduling feature to post them at specific times.
Are you getting as many comments as you’d like? You may not want to sort through all of the comments. Use a plugin to add page numbers. Your site will have more visual appeal and be easier for visitors to navigate.
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.
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.
Organize your permalinks. You need to make your links easy for the search engines to find your important information. You should learn proper SEO to do this. In the meantime, you can use WordPress’s included permalink form to clean up links before publication. Cut words down to only the most important ones. Also, try cleverly adding your keywords to your descriptions.
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.
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.
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”.
Remember that social media is integral to the success of both blogs and websites today, so you should install social networking plugins which allow you to share your content through your accounts. Facebook Connect is one example of an excellent tool to use to repost your content to your Facebook account.
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.
You can set up an automatic schedule for your posts to appear in WordPress. This way, your posts will be published while you are doing other things. Just have a look at your EDIT screen. Here you will see the PUBLISH box. There, you will find “publish immediately.” Select the time and date you want it to be published. Then you just select “okay.” Check mark the “schedule for” option, and then hit the schedule button if it is correct.
WordPress is a blogging platform that is popular, easy to use and has many capabilities. As you can see from this article, there is a whole lot you can do with the platform to make your blogging more successful. Make use of the simple tips outlined above to get the most from WordPress.