WordPress is the most popular blogging platform on the internet. Knowing how to use the platform properly make blogging easier and more effective. Follow these simple tips and tricks on using the platform to get the most from your blogging experience. Your readers are sure to thank you for it!
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.
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.
Learn everything you can about WordPress choices to use it most effectively. For example, clicking the Kitchen Sink will give you choices such as importing and formatting posts. It is possible to control a number of formatting elements with this.
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.
WordPress makes it easy for users to incorporate video blogging into their site. This can involve a bit of a learning curve, but it is well worthwhile. Visuals grab your readers’ attention. Videos can sometimes convey information more quickly and effectively than the written word.
Don’t forget to use spellcheck. It may seem obvious now, but many people forget to do it. When using the WordPress editor to post to your blog, make sure you take advantage of its spellcheck function. Even if you have already proofread your post, a quick and simple spellcheck couldn’t hurt.
Make sure that your work is saved at all times. That’s not necessarily the case. Try clearing your browser cache to solve this problem. Press and then hold the shift key as you refresh the browser to make the changes show up.
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.
You can increase your rank by including keywords with your pictures. Make sure that your title tags are clearly indicated. Your title will show up when something is “pinned” on Pintrest.
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.
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.
Back up your content on your WordPress blog. Sure WordPress is a very well-known and stable platform, but things still do go wrong from time to time. You don’t want to be caught without a content backup if somethings gone the wrong way. You can simply copy and paste your articles into Evernote or another notes platform.
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.
You can easily get rid of external text formatting in WordPress. You may need to copy text from Word. Many times, it inserts characters that don’t display properly, even with “Paste from Word” option. Select the “Show/Hide Kitchen Sink” option to show another row of buttons. Highlight the problematic text. Click on a button called “Remove Formatting” to fix it.
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.
As stated above, knowing how to use WordPress properly is a great advantage to you as a blogger. Even if you know the basics, it is important to learn all the aspects of the blogging tool. Remember the helpful tips listed above as you explore and use the popular blogging platform.